Why was my message to Pakistan to give up Kashmir ignored: Khurshid

New Delhi: Salman Khurshid, who drew flak recently for his criticism of the Narendra Modi government in Pakistan, got a chance to explain his stand on the concluding day of the Times LitFest Delhi. The former Union minister and senior Congress politician was speaking at a session named after his book, ‘At Home in India: The Muslims’ Saga’, when a member of the audience tried to trap him.
Khurshid was asked if it was right of him to criticise his Prime Minister on Pakistani soil and if he should have first reached out to his own people first—Khurshid’s inaugural comments included the point about the need of Indians to communicate better with one another. Khurshid responded by saying that his whole address was not focused upon, but just one comment in the whole speech.
“I went to Pakistan on the invitation of the Jinnah university. I began by telling Pakistan that it should give up its claim and ambitions over Kashmir if it really wanted to engage with India. Why was this not focused upon? Towards the end, I expressed my disappointment with the present Indian government’s refusal to engage with Pakistan. Then I said that PM Narendra Modi was somebody who had not lost an election in 20 years and someone who doesn’t engage with those who don’t agree with him. If Pakistan wanted to have a dialogue with him, they should attain his standard. This is all I had said. And I thought it was a witty remark,” Khurshid explained to a loud applause from the audience.
Khurshid also spoke about Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif’s intentions. He said he ran his election campaign on the need to engage with India. “The young people in Pakistan want to be like the young people of India. He was told by his advisor that it was a bad strategy. But he said it was important not to impose emotional baggage on young Pakistanis. That was a great thing to do,” Khurshid said, adding that at some point, Indians and Pakistanis will have to reach a common ground.
“Pakistan will do 10 times better if they abandoned their present course of enmity with India. And we will have a better subcontinent if Indians, Pakistani and Bangladeshis could move around freely, work and live in each others’ countries. It may not be a popular thing to say right now, but it is necessary,” he said.
Khurshid also spoke about global terrorism and India and said Indian Muslims have not been affected by whatever has befallen Muslims of other countries. He also stressed on India’s composite culture and said that Muslims in India feel safe because there are Hindus who talk about their pain and defend them. “We have always been like that: Muslims taking care of Hindus and Hindus taking care of Muslims. We may have slid back a little in the last two years, but we will once again be like that,” Khurshid said.