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Pakistan has based its identity on anti-Indianness: Husain Haqqani

Former Pakistan ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani's just released book, 'India Vs Pakistan: Why Can't We Just Be Friends?' (Juggernaut Books), has landed him in the eye of a media storm for its revelation that Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, then ISI chief, had told him soon after 26/11, that the terrorists in Mumbai were "hamaray loag" (our people). Haqqani, however, is non-plussed by the to-do. It's hardly a new revelation, says the former journalist, who's also served as advisor to four Pakistani prime ministers, including Benazir Bhutto, in this telephonic interview from Washington, where he is director at the Hudson Institute. Edited excerpts:

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Husain Haqqani
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What led you to reveal the conversation with Shuja Pasha now?

It's not a revelation. It has been mentioned by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, and CIA director Michael Hayden. It is important in that now you have a Pakistani saying it, but it is not as much of a revelation as is being perceived. The attention it has received in India shows that Indians are only looking for some kind of admission from Pakistan about Pakistan's role in 26/11. And that basically is a microcosm of the difficulty in the relationship. Which is that Pakistan usually denies and India tends to emphasise terrorism.

Also my understanding is that when Gen Pasha said that these were our people, he did not mean that they were serving ISI. What he meant was they are Pakistanis.

Your book essentially traces the history of India-Pakistan disaffection over the past 69 years. What led you to write it now?

I was struck by the statistics that 95% of Indians and 96% of Pakistanis alive today are people who were not present at the time of Partition. This is a generation that did not see the bitterness that saw our two countries to become independent. These young people, their memories of each other are only transmitted memories -- what they have been told. I am trying to tell a different story.

You speak of the shrinking space in India for Indo-Pak friendship because of saffronisation. What effect has the presence of an elected government in Pakistan since 2013 had on the issue?

I see no change from the Pakistani side. Pakistan has unfortunately based its identity on anti-Indianness. The Pakistan leaders have not been able to change the national mindset about India and say that, maybe, India is not the enemy, poverty is the enemy, 42% of our children not going to school is the enemy; that, maybe, radical Islam is the enemy.

What baby steps, according to you, need to be taken on both sides to mend relations?

Pakistan and India have taken baby steps for 69 years. It is not time for baby steps, it is time for a giant leap. That can only happen when terrorism is over. In the presence of terrorism no great leap will be possible. Once terrorism is shut down, then there is hope to understand the bigger picture, to look beyond the day to day quarrels. And the big picture is that even the founder of Pakistan, MA Jinnah, had said India and Pakistan should be next to each other like US and Canada.

Pakistan has taken steps towards checking terrorism of late. Do you think these are adequate?

I think Pakistan has started taking hesitant steps to check terrorism on its soil. Gen Raheel Sharif is very different from his predecessors and has definitely proceeded against extreme jihadis within. But the definition of terrorists in Pakistan does not seem to apply to acts inside India. So the terrorists they have arrested after Peshawar were those who acted against Pakistan. They have still not acted against the terrorists who have acted against India. Groups such as the Lashkar-e-Tayaba, Jaish-e-Mohammed the Haqqani network -- they are still exempt.

What has been the reaction in Pakistan to your book?

I have not seen the feedback but if history is any guide, a lot of hardliners in Pakistan will abuse me.

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