Lit Fest 2016: India committing same errors as Pakistan, says Husain Haqqani

Concern on rising intolerance in India found an echo in the words of Pakistani diplomat-turnedauthor Husain Haqqani, who warned Delhi could be making the same mistake as Islamabad. Speaking at the Times Lit Fest on Saturday, Haqqani said he regretted India was following the path Pakistan had taken decades with a rising trend of “revisionist history".

Such an approach means instead of seeing the government's primary responsibility as securing citizens' welfare, the state is constructed as the upholder of an ideology, with a larger goal, Haqqani explained. In Pakistan, the ideology of Islam imbued the state with a “higher pur pose“, and this made it possible for leaders to whip up jingoistic fervour, he said, adding he was sorry to see a similar trend in India now.

In one important way, however, Pakistan was different from India, he reminded his audience -never in the country of his birth had a religious politi cal party won the majority vote.

Haqqani, who calls himself an “exile“, is most recently the author of a book examining the possibility of friendly ties between Delhi and Islamabad. In conversation with journalist Shekhar Gupta, he said he didn't see friendly ties in the near future. Over time, shared cultural bonds and the large number of similarities would bind the two nations in friendship, he said.