Hasina should be allowed to stay in India as long as she wants: Aiyar

Former Indian career diplomat and Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has said that deposed Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina should be allowed to stay in India as long as she wants, reports bdnews24.com.
About demands by Bangladesh to extradite Hasina, he said, "I hope we will never disagree that Sheikh Hasina has done a lot of good for us. I am glad she was given refuge. I think we should be her host as long as she wants, even if it is for all her life."
The Economic Times reported that Aiyar attended the 16th Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival on Saturday. On the sidelines, he spoke to PTI about Hasina and Bangladesh-India ties.
Hasina, 77, fled to India after stepping down in the face of a nationwide mass movement. She has been incommunicado since she arrived at Hindon airbase on Aug 5, though it is learnt that she has been moved to a safe house in New Delhi.
Hasina and the ministers, MPs and senior leaders of the Awami League face more than a hundred cases on charges of killings over efforts to thwart the mass movement. The International Crimes Tribunal issued an arrest warrant against Hasina on charges of genocide and abduction.
The Muhammad Yunus-led interim government sought her extradition through a note verbale, or unsigned diplomatic correspondence, sent to the Indian external affairs ministry on Dec 23.
India did not officially respond to the request, rather media reports mentioned that Hasina's visa was extended.
Appreciating Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri's visit to Dhaka last month, Aiyar told PTI that the talks should be continuous and New Delhi needed to establish ministerial contacts with the interim government of Bangladesh.
The Congress leader said it is true that minority Hindus in Bangladesh are being attacked, but mostly it is because they are supporters of Hasina.
"They (reports about attacks on Hindus) are true but exaggerated, because many of the conflicts are more about settlement of political differences," he said.
Earlier during a question hour session, Aiyar said that Pakistanis are much like Indians, but only the accident of partition made them a different country.
"There exists much more difference between me, a Tamil, and my wife, a Punjabi, than between her and a Pakistani Punjabi," he said.