'Pakistanis are India's biggest asset': Mani Shankar Aiyar's speech in Lahore sparks row

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar sparked a row after he described Pakistanis as the biggest asset of India.

“The Pakistanis, from my experience, have been the people who react perhaps overreact to the other side. If we are friendly, they are overfriendly and if we are hostile, they get over hostile…I have never been to a country where I was been welcomed with such open arms as I was in Pakistan," Aiyar reportedly said at an event in Paksitan's Lahore.

He also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy towards Pakistan, saying that he doesn't have the courage to hold talks with the neighbour, reports Pakistan daily Dawn.

There were five Indian high commissioners who served in the Congress government and the BJP government in Islamabad and all five of them unanimously agreed that whatever are our differences, we must engage with Pakistan and the biggest mistake that we made in the last 10 years was the refusing dialogue. We have the courage to conduct surgical strikes against you but we don't have the courage to sit across the table and talk," Aiyar said at the event.

He also took potshots at the Indian electoral system saying that Modi represents only one-third of the electorates, while the two-third of Indians are ready to embrace the Pakistanis.

“…So two-thirds of Indians are ready to come towards you (Pakistanis),” he was quoted as saying by Dawn.

This isn't the first time that the former MP has been in the limelight for the wrong reasons. He was suspended in 2018 by Congress for calling Modi "neech kism ka aadmi" (vile man).

But nine months later, his suspension was revoked by then Congress president Rahul Gandhi after the recommendation of the disciplinary committee of the party.

In 2014,