KARACHI: People voted the Bharatiya Janata Party to power, because the BJP promised them that it would focus on development using slogans for a bright future such as ‘Acche Din Aaenge’, but it would be difficult for the party to return to power if it doesn’t mend its ways, as the people of India did not vote for the party on communal grounds, said former Indian minister Anil Kumar Shastri, the son of former Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, on Friday.

Mr Shastri was talking to Dawn in the museum next to the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, before laying a wreath at the founder of the nation’s mazaar.

The senior leader of the Congress Party, who landed in Islamabad on Nov 17 to take part in a conference and was in Karachi on a private visit, said the BJP had been wiped out in the elections held in Delhi and recently in Bihar indicating that its policies had been rejected by the people.

Mr Shastri was optimistic about the future of Indo-Pakistan relations, stressing that the political leadership of both countries should sit together and discuss issues of mutual concerns.

He said he was excited to visit the Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum. He praised Mr Jinnah for being a great leader who helped his nation get a separate homeland in difficult circumstances. He viewed rare objects used by the Quaid in the museum for a while after which he went to the mausoleum and laid a wreath there.

While talking to journalists, Mr Shastri later lauded the Quaid-i-Azam’s contribution to making Pakistan. He said cordial relations between India and Pakistan would not only benefit the two neighbouring countries but would strengthen entire South Asia.

In response to a question on the recent wave of extremism in India, he reiterated that the BJP came to power on the promise of development, not on communal grounds. He warned the BJP that its policy of pitting brothers against each other would not succeed, citing the results of the Delhi and Bihar elections.

He said he always wanted to come to Karachi. He admitted that, like a Karachi girl whom he met in the morning who had her doubts about the treatment she would receive in India if she visited the country, he had doubts about coming to Karachi. Some of his friends had suggested him to be ‘cautious’, he said, but coming to the city dispelled his suspicions. He said it was up to the politicians on both sides of the divide to get together and sort out differences.

Answering a question about Shiv Sena’s recent extremist posturing, Mr Shastri said there was a time when the party used to be number one in Maharashtra, not anymore. Now, he said, it was the number two party and not many in the province listened to its points of view.In her talk with the media, Anil Kumar Shastri’s wife Manju Shastri said she was excited to be in Pakistan. Contrary to what some people had told her, she said it did not take her and her husband a long time to cross the Wagah border. She said she had just been to Karachi, but was in Islamabad for a couple of days and liked it.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2015