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Rajeev Gandhi was prime minister. We've had a long family relationship with them. He asked me to fight an election, and I went ahead and did it. But I was not qualified as a politician, and I am not going back there again.

I had been a radical, a left-wing politico, and meeting the Indian people made me realize that the politics of the left and the right were so much less important than the politics of the heart and the spirit.

Most Pakistani politics is conducted within a narrow spectrum. Politicians spend much time debating the best ways to fight India, or take Kashmir, or dominate Afghanistan, or punish the United States for its real and imagined sins.

I was leader of the Opposition when Vajpayee was PM. We attacked policies, not personalities, neither inside or outside the House.

The Sangh Parivar, against which I had been waging a war, misled the people. My opponents used the Election Commission and the bureaucracy to win a political battle.

And we know there has been horrendous loss of life and suffering and we know that there is anger. Anyone who came anywhere near the general election in constituencies with a substantial Muslim population knows that.

In army, I went to Kashmir and did well, which was a challenge. In sports, I went to Olympics at a time when no one believed that we can actually win. Coming into politics was also a challenge as I wanted to push the youth to achieve gold in various fields of life.

I was a candidate in 1991. There was virtually a wave for Ram Mandir. In 1989 also, there was a wave - anti-Congress wave.

I was forced to come into politics because Saakashvili had destroyed the opposition. I had a choice either to leave the country, because it was dangerous to live here, or to go into politics.

When I was growing up in the south Indian city of Madras, there were only two political parties that mattered; one was run by a former matinee idol, and the other was run by his former screenwriter.