Build Bridges, Not Bombs

There was this Geo-TV programme we saw in Delhi yesterday. It had Hamid Mir, one Sikh MNA/Pakistan, one retired General Masood and one Pak Minister of I&B from the Pakistani side. From the Indian side it had Rajdeep Sardesai, General Vijay Oberoi (retd.) one MP from Bhilwara in Rajasthan and Rajat Shukla, an MP cum journo.

I would advise people to try to get hold of the transcript if they can from Geo-TV in Pakistan.

It is quite apparent that if the path forward is left to leaders then it will come apart on the issue of Kashmir - 194? resolutions and Muslim lives in India, as far as the Pakistani side is concerned. From the Indian side, Kashmir ditto. Unfortunately, the Siachen issue runs paralel to Kashmir, otherwise that could have been a good starting point.

If the path is left to ex-soldiers, then it seems as though it will come apart on the fact that serving soldiers think radically differently from retired soldiers in India, while in Pakistan it seems as though serving and retired soldiers think along the same lines.

Media will, obviously, go for the larger ``noise`` values. Yuck.

Commerce across borders seems to be one aspect where there appears to be some common ground. Here again, existing commerce of the un-organised sort bears some mention . . . these are street figures I get from buzz.

a) Smuggling a cow across from India into Pakistan costs about 4500/- to 5000/- rupees for Pakistan, while it costs about 500 taka into Bangladesh. As a result cows go increasingly to Bangladesh.

b) A new Maruti-800 made in India costs about 1.5 lakhs in India and same thing from Suzuki/Japan almost 4 or 5 lakhs in Pakistan. The Pakistani I&B Minister was really surprised to hear this. ``Stolen`` cars moving into Nepal has been old hat, will they move into Pakistan too, soon?

c) Medical tourism is now open domain, but has actually existed for years. That Pakistani patients are reaching South India in increasing numbers for treatment is new.

To my untrained eye, it will be the unorgnised business sectors that may provide some momentum.

Indian media seems to be picking on these stories lately. What about Pakistani?

There is no point in blaming the politicians and the bureaucracy... it is the army that doesn`t want peace..

Beenaji,

Do we really need the bridges right now?

Can we not just call it off for a decade or two? Complete silence. Khamoshee?

It is going to be very very difficult to argue and make any positive case for Pakistan in India, at least in my part of the India. Same may or may not be true in yours.

This is a ploy of your dictator to disctract so that he rules... that is what common Indian feels. I do.

Let us just be apart and alone. And respect each other.

If and when we meet, we will do so as a dost with open arms.

Yogiraj Patil

Ms. Sarwar:

It`s not going to happen in our lifetime, that is for sure...considering the fact that majority of the Pakistani populace consider India as an enemy state in a recently Gallup survey and I am sure that the feelings are mutual...so why all this hoopla when we know the outcome...it ain`t going to happen!

Beena:

...the alternative to peace is ghastly... continued army occupation of the country...

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Beena:
....if the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, how many steps are needed to start a journey of half a kilometer of no-man`s land?

Ref #5 by temporal

[...the alternative to peace is ghastly... continued army occupation of the country...]

Actually, occupation of Pakistan only. So why should India help Pakistanis out by making peace? You should stew in your own juices.

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#9 by harimau
Ref #5 by temporal

[...the alternative to peace is ghastly... continued army occupation of the country...] ``Actually, occupation of Pakistan only. So why should India help Pakistanis out by making peace?``


because they are our neighbours?
because friendly relations with a pakistan freed from army`s clutches would benefit us also... for instance some of the money we spend on defence could be spent on education etc?



#11 by sarwar
``Traditionally, the Indian Muslim has displayed a visible arrogance towards the Hindu faith. He has mocked his deities, shunned his beliefs and adopted the high moral ground in relation to the Hindu lifestyle. If this is the Indian Muslim, who has coexisted with the Hindu forever, it is presumed, naturally, that the Muslim from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan will be far more intolerant. The arrival of seven Pakistanis for the Kumbh and their obvious respect for Hindu customs, has therefore, made for a pleasant surprise. And this really is how we can build bridges, gulf the divide.``

that may be true, but things are changing now, and that reminds me... there was an interesting bit of news in yesterday`s Times of India.... in connection with the Krishna Janmashtami celebrations on Tuesday... here it is..
``RELIGION NO BAR
It can be termed as an ideal example of communal harmony. Safa Banu, a four year old Muslim girl, won the Muddukrishna (baby Krishna) contest in Udupi. In the fancy dress contest, young children are dressed up as Krishna. This year Safa, dressed like the Udupi Krishna idol wearing a diamond vest was the winner. Appreciating the girl`s talent and holding it up as the secularism of their town, Sri Vidhyadeesha Thirtha Swamiji said communal harmony was the need of the hour.``

can you believe it? there was a photograph of the child too, she looked marvellous.
seven pakistanis for the kumbh mela? don`t remember reading about it in our papers... tell us more?
and for the rest of your post and your article, I say `hear hear`

A very pleasant read!

I do not understand why was all this hapening at Jinnah`s mazar. At one time he did represent the unity of the Hindus and Muslims but he abandoned his own ideals for personal aggrandizement.

All this notwithstanding


Let us not underestimate the potential for improvement between the parts of one nation that was vivisected by the international forces, misguided and desperate Indians. An important thing to research and identify is which groups are benefitting with the continued division of Indians. This needs to be done before the appropriate strategy for the neutralization of the profiteers of war and division.

Dost-mittar, please do not discourage or be discouraged by the enormity of the job. The important thing is to correct the slope of the feeder lines and you will be amazed by the ease with which the drops will fill the ocean.

The very fact that people realize their own contribution to the mess as documented in the write-up shows that there is a possibility. You never know what can lead to what result. For example when BJP came to power in India there was widespread fear that liguistic quarrels in India will aggravate. I also personally knew about Murli Manohar Joshi who refused to attend my wedding because the invitation was in English language. By the way he was a student of my father. But that problem was solved forever by BJP by acquiescing to the demand of erstwhile Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu that all Indian languages be recognized as official languages not just Hindi. For past five years there has not been any language problem in India.

SO CONTINUE BUILDING THE BRIDGES AND DISMANTLE THE BOMBS AS THE CONFIDENCE, COMMITMENT AND COMFORT LEVELS INCREASE!!!!

A coalition of women and children will go a long way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peace and Harmony for South Asia

The general consenus in any group of South Asians will most likely have a majority that will agree that living in peace is to the greatest advantage of the greatest number in the populations of South Asia. But the majority opinion of the very same group will also beleive that permanent peace is unlikely to prevail any time soon. They will hold this view yet most of them will sigh and wish it were not so.

This is a defeatist approach. Peace and harmony must be achieved and can be achieved. But if we expect the politicians and bureaucrats to settle the differences and bring peace, folks that isn`t going to happen till hell freezes over. For peace to prevail individuals have to take the initiative in their own hands.

Like charity, reform also begins at home. Let`s start right here, at Chowk.com: All people who beleive that the greater good of the greatest number of people in South Asia will come with increased prosperity, and that prosperity requires peace as a pre-condition, should take initiatives of peace and harmony by first of all bringing into the fold of decency, tolerence and civilization all the card-carrying members of the Pak-Bharat Dushmeni Club who contaminate this website with their blind hatred, ill mannered jahil and vicious comments and generally revulsive predisposition. If this can first be achieved here on this website only then there is some hope for the future of the billion plus South Asians from The Durand Line to the Burma border.

The second practical approach for people to people peace and harmony is possible among South Asians who live abroad. Let your sons and daughters feel free to inter marry. Befriend people of other South Asian ethnicities and religions and invite them to your functions and go and participate in theirs. Let your toddlers and teen agers mingle at those functions.

Furthermore those who can afford should start a tradition to send their younger family members (who have passports from Europe, America, Canadia etc) on a Grand Trip to South Asia as a ritualistic rite of passage, just like American middle class youth went to Europe for the summer.

These are small steps but their accummulative effect can snowball. There is a Chinese saying that It is better to have one match stick lit for a second than to curse the darkness forever.

...SR

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A thaw in Indo-Pak. relations

By Rajindar Sachar

For fruitful talks with Pakistan, it is necessary to broadly work out an acceptable arrangement internally in Jammu and Kashmir.



THE RECENT visit of the Pakistan MPs, following the statesman-like speech by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, in Srinagar, expressing an open wish to normalise relations with Pakistan and have open-ended talks with all the groups in Jammu and Kashmir has again revived the hope that the volatile situation in the subcontinent, caused by Indo-Pakistan hostility, will become a thing of the past.

For fruitful talks with Pakistan, it is necessary to broadly work out an acceptable arrangement internally in Jammu and Kashmir. The importance of this emerged broadly during the interaction with the Pakistani delegation. Both the Indian and the Pakistani groups accepted that notwithstanding the sentiments of the past and the public fulmination of politicians, there was a Lakshman rekha which could not be crossed.

That except for a minor modification based on geographical or practical considerations, public opinion in neither of the countries will accept any change in the Line of Control. And that politicians in India will continue to proclaim their loyalty to an impracticable parliamentary resolution of a decade ago to reclaim portions of Kashmir on the Pakistani side, while politicians in Islamabad will shed tears for the right of Kashmiris to self-determination, conveniently keeping under wraps the fact that Pakistan has already incorporated Gilgit etc., permanently into its territory and also leased out hundreds of miles in Aksai Chin in Kashmir to the Chinese. Even the proponents of independent Kashmir do not talk of reclaiming these areas.

Notwithstanding Kargil, overwhelming sentiment in both Pakistan and India would welcome this arrangement though for some time it may be shown as de facto, with the understanding that it will be made a de jure international boundary at an appropriate time. It necessarily has to be a slow process considering that Pakistan has, for the last so many decades, fed its people on the prospect of the whole of Jammu and Kashmir becoming part of it.

Some well-meaning commentators in Pakistan have suggested an arrangement like Taiwan and mainland China where the latter has accepted Taiwan as an independent country but refuses to make it de jure. This, however, cannot work in Kashmir. Despite the public outcry by the Chinese, no military conflict took place between mainland China and Taiwan possibly because of the American defence extended to Taiwan to remain a separate entity. There was no enmity generated between mainland China and Taiwan.

Unfortunately, India and Pakistan have fought three wars which have generated tremendous mutual suspicion. Now that talks are to take place, both the Governments must take this issue by the horn. Practical realism must dictate that there is no alternative but to maintain status quo on a permanent basis.

The suggestion by some American think-tanks that this ``core issue``, as Pakistan says, should be frozen to be taken up after a decade, is unnatural — it may allow mischief-makers on both sides spoil the goodwill which has been generated and once again create a vacuum which may encourage the U.S. to don the role of a mediator or facilitator to strengthen its unsavoury presence in the subcontinent.

Pakistani friends did drop a hint and I fully agree with them that if New Delhi were to work out a satisfactory arrangement with the people of Kashmir, it will serve a dual purpose — one, it will give Pakistan a direct message that there is no division in the Indian thinking on such a sensitive issue and second, it will enable peace activists in Pakistan to convince its people that since the people of Jammu and Kashmir have arrived at a settlement with the Centre, any talk of coming to the help of the beleaguered Muslim population in Jammu and Kashmir is false and that the only course for the welfare of the masses lies is permanent Indo-Pakistan friendship.

Except an insignificant number, people in the Valley yearn for peace provided the Centre recognises the genuine aspirations of the people and agrees to an arrangement which gives them pride in their Kashmiriyat and a mechanism to further their aspirations while remaining part of the Indian Union.

If all the political parties give an assurance that Article 370 will not be abrogated, and that the pre-1953 status — by which Jammu and Kashmir had acceded to India only subjects of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communication and Currency — will be given a constitutional status with a proviso that similar autonomy will be given to the regions of Jammu and Ladakh, the people will accept it and even the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, despite its unedifying spectacle of waiting on the doors of foreign embassies, will rethink its plight of being forced into the wilderness.

In this process, Pakistan`s delay in announcing a High Commissioner to India and in restoring the air links is a cause for concern. And this encourages the BJP hawks, notwithstanding that the initiative is that of its own Prime Minister, to `sabotage` the visit by using un-parliamentary language against the organisers and other non-official groups which arranged the visit of the Pakistani MPs. This ultimately led to the BJP leadership and the Government spokesman refusing to meet a parliamentary delegation from a neighbouring country, ignoring the wise words of the Prime Minister that you can give up your friends but you cannot give up your neighbour.

The recent bombing and killing in Saudi Arabia (till now acclaimed the leader of Muslim Umma) by the Al-Qaeda network and the latest warning of revenge against the U.S. and its allies by Ayman Al- Zawahiri, closest aide of Osama bin Laden, should make the terrorist organisations operating in Kashmir realise that this extreme form of fundamentalism is a danger to the safety of both Muslims and non-Muslims in India and Pakistan, and that both the Governments can meet the challenge of terrorism only by mutual goodwill and confidence.

Of course, the Hurriyat`s claim as the sole representative of Kashmiris is unacceptable. Political space has been occupied by other groups as a result of what is now accepted as fairly free elections and they cannot be ignored. But still the Hurriyat does respect the silent sentiment of the Valley and, therefore, any settlement without involving it may not be feasible.

In order to break the deadlock, if the Prime Minister were to invite all the groups and individuals, including the Hurriyat and Shabir Shah, and assure them of the Government`s desire for a respectable and satisfactory arrangement and ask them to work out the details with the official negotiator, N. N. Vohra, it will be difficult for any group to refuse to engage in talks.

The Pakistani delegation also responded encouragingly to the suggestions of a group of Chief Executive Officers of the corporate sector in India for visiting Pakistan and having talks with their counterparts. This will further be an opening for mutual benefit and encouragement of trade resulting in the saving of billions for both the countries.

This step and opening of the rail, bus and air links and comparatively free movement of people, including relaxation of visits by families across the LoC, will accelerate the process of Indo-Pakistan amity.