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Earlier this week, President Asif Ali Zardari urged India to resume the process of composite dialogue without any conditions to jointly address common problems, including Kashmir and terrorism. Now, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for a peaceful partnership with Pakistan, which he argues is in his country’s vital interest.
On Tuesday, Dr Singh said, ‘I have believed India cannot realise its ambitions unless there is peace and prosperity in South Asia as a whole and if our neighbourhood is suffering from instability and turbulence that has direct bearing on our own evolution as a democratic polity committed to sustained growth and development.’
Do you think the threat of spreading regional militancy will pave the way for Pakistan and India to work together to combat terrorism? Is a détente in the offing? And are Pakistan and India ready to revisit the Kashmir issue in the prevailing socio-political climate?
To me its wate of time.
As long as Pakistan continue this attitude this peace process is not going to work.
Now the Mumbai master mind been set to free.. then we are going back to squre one. why do you want to start the peace process? its waste of time for our PM, instead he can spend this time on our economic growth.
As the scourge of militancy is sucking the energy of both countries, there is an urgent need of resolvement of differences between these two strategically important countries. Unless and until there will not be the end of suspicious behavior towards each other, the efforts to make durable peace will be futile . Every time the dialogues reach at critical point, some undesirable happening shatters them at all. this is all because of half-hearted efforts from both sides. if they are committed fully this time, they should make sure that they would carry out in ups and owns and would make the lives of people comfortable.
It is tru that Indo-Pak dialogue is the most important piec of the jigsaw puzzle called “Peace in SE. Asia”, but nothing can happen till LET and other groups are not dismantled ad we Indians don’t see infiltration or violence for atleast a year.
I sincerely hope all the Pakis are as self aware as Arshad Ali and make the necessary changes to have peace with India. India is a peace loving country but our patience is running thin.
India must recongnize kashmir as disputed area and should stop suspicious activities in afganistan. Then we can have peace in this region
We all like to see our neighbors prosper and South Asia becomes like European Union, prosperous, peaceful and progressive. But the facts are very different. Pakistan is still ruled by few elite and they do not like to change the status quo. Fanatic groups are on the rise in Bangladesh. Recent developments in Sri Lanka and Nepal are more positive and hopefully they can develop progressive policies.
Pakistan’s policies I feel had been anti Indian and not pro development. For Military dominance and Jagirdari system to continue they have to keep their public in perpetual dark, poor, illiterate and fanatically religious. This banana republic not only destroying itself and is responsible for keeping this region as among the less developed of the nations. Hope one day Pakistan and Pakistanis realize their mistakes and help south Asia progress. It’s Pakistan responsibility to improve trust with India and Indians.
My previous comment may have sounded a little harsh but when i see some of the stuff posted here, it seems people are dreaming on both sides of the fence. There are so many misguided thoughts in the lines of,
1) Politicians are the root cause..common man is innocent and is suffering.
2) General advice in form of
a) concentrate on internal economy,
education etc.
b) concentrate on cooperating on these
fronts
and so much more..
3) Accusations based on specific historic events based on fact or fiction without understanding why things are the way they are.
Most of the folks seem to be naive or tired.
We have to rise and show real vision and realize that it is in the interest of both countries to work together for peace and prosperity of its people.
Whether it is Pakistan’s support for Kashmir, or India’s alleged clandestine support of arms and training of insurgents in Balochistan, resolution of these problems is the only logical way to step forward and grasp the moment of peace the people of both countries yearn for.
Politicians with destructive visions will only take us towards chaos of which we have had enough.
Peace or war. The choice is ours. And it is us the people who must pressure our politicians to make peace. The alternative is to let our children fight for another 50-100 years. If that is the vision of our politicians, so be it!!!THank you very much!!!You continue to fail us.
We have millions of people who have been schooled since the Zia years in hating our neighbor.
Once we are economically stronger, we will be in a better position to challenge India on multiple issues including Hyderabad, Sir Creek, Kashmir and Junagadh – amongst others.
I find the desire on part of the Indians to improve relations and see us being economically stronger as incredibly short sighted.
Dear Arshad,
That’s what i have been saying .You already have part of Kashmir , We have part.Let us proceed towards other priorities.There are lots of other factors , which are of of concern than this KAshmir issue.Let us stop this hatred and let us forgive each other.
Let us work towards prosperity .
Ideas have conseqences. The most consequential idea of the 20th century is not the independence but the idea of the two nation theory orchestrated by the poet Iqbal in the sub-continent in 1930. He was no Homer introducing Olympian gods to the Greeks. He was reintroducing an idea already prounced dead during the end of the Ottoman empire of the idea of Pan-Islamism. Once the idea, though historically dead, took hold, even the most secularists like Jinnah and Bhutto became hostage to it.What Pakistan needs is a historian with the experience of an archeologist. He must raise the following questions: Is Pakistan better off with two nation theory? How to explain the break up of Pakistan in 1971? How to explain the Paushtoon and Balucchi insurgency? Is Kashmir a problem or the idea that led to the creation of Pakistan is the sourec of the problem? It is time to use the mind. Shakeel from Karachi.
Please let us not be fools and behave rationally. Both countries have caused problems in each other’s terrotories. India is as much or more to blame for the problems. I say this because India is 10 times Pakistan’s size in population and more than 3 times in terms of military yet it chose to test Nucleur Technology first in 1974 when Pakistan had no plans. Who did it want to threaten?
So I am firm supporter of friendship and would like BOTH countries to admit their mistakes sincerely and let us start afresh and resume people to people contact. We are the best of friends and even share families across borders (including me). So we need to come to terms and root out the hawks and be peaceful and friendly neighbours.
A bit of history for folks in India:
1. Kashmir was not given to Pakistan and there were other areas like Junagadh, Hyderabad etc., that were forcibly merged with India.
2. Pakistan did not receive the resources from the treasury as it was supposed to have.
These and other things poisoned Pakistani leadership’s mind from the get-go even if the nation was created for “Indian Moslems”.
To the Pakistanis, I would say, no matter how much you want to believe this, India does not want to conquer you. This was the spin that was given by your leadership, to alienate you from the ground realities that Pakistan was a land for “Indian” moslems. Of course, sixty years later, thanks to constant brainwashing, many of you think, you have landed there from some other planet rather than having been an integral part of the Indus-Gangetic civilization, much older that most others. Our DNAs are the same, if you believe in science.
As for me, I see a Pakistan and India coming together as the two Germany’s did. There are still a lot of problems in the unified Germany but it certainly is a stronger entity. Perhaps this is a pipe dream but, I may as well dream.
@ tajwali,
It is high time India stops its policy of destablizing Pakistan which they have pursued since 1947. I dont think the Indian dream of Pakistan falling apart next year is going to be fulfilled in the next couple of centuries. Wake and amend your policy!
==> Can you elaborate this?
Now if you are saying about creation of Bangladesh, that happened in 1971, you are not ready to move forward. Even more, that east and west pakistan would remain attached forever was myopic, due to separated terrain and language/caste differences.
I dont want to dwell on this, because this topic itself is too large to accommodate here, however can you suggest one point, where you think, India is destabilizing pakistan since 1947? All wars that were fought were started by Pakistan, and even the Kargil incident was initiated by Musharraf, keeping the then PM , sharif in the dark.
==>
Ok, by supporting terrorism, pakistan is defending itself. What an analysis!!! You expect India to sit and see pakistan exporting terrorism ?
I think India has realized that in order to be an economic power house it must have peace ful western border.
===>
India is already economic powerhouse and poised to grow even further within next 5 to 15 years.
India does not need to realize that. India has learnt to adjust itself despite odds.
I strongly believe that Pakitan India partnership has more to offer us the people of the subcontinent than Pakistan-india Arch rivalry
==> It will definitely be good, but i do not see that happening so soon.
And the statment “Pakistan-india Arch rivalry” is a pakistani one.
India does not see pakistan as its arch rival at all. For India, its another country.
War and hatred bring low energy and low level of thinking. Unfortunately we are still living in fear, guilt, revenge and anger. Hope we move towards, love , joy, peace, reason , acceptance and courage. We learn history, but we do not learn from history. We have to learn from Europeans who are at high level of thinking. After the World war they learned from it, but we did not.
My Indian and Pakistani friends.
let us take a look at the modern world history, before we talk about peace and harmony between India and Pakistan. There are only two countries in this modern world which were created based on religion alone. Jewish state of Israel and Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Both have huge problems because God and religion dominates every aspect of their life. Jews can still justify the existence of Israel, upto a certain extent, by Holocast where 6 million innocent Jews were massacred in different organised countries of Europe. How do Pakistanis justify their existence? No holocast happened to them either by British or undivided Indians. Pakistanis need to find a credible justification, not for the world but to themselves and their children. Indians face this truth and call partition as a historical tragedy and moved on. May be Pakistanis reject Islamism and call Bagladesh a religious tragedy and have peace in themselves and move on.
I feel India and Pakistan will never have peaceful and good/stable friendly relations as long as pakistani agencies, which dances to geo political and strategic tunes of other powers does not change thier dubious perception of terrorist and asset ( one that strikes itself is terror and one that strikes else on its behalf is asset )
I frankly do not see in next 20 years if there is going to be even 20% change in this. Hence this will continue where it is.
As long as pakistan does not stand up for itself and do what is in its own interest, rather than carry forward interests of others( and ajust its own interest in between) , it wont have a good/stable relations, either with India or Afghanistan or even Iran.
Peace is in everyone’s benefit. both india and pakistan can never achive stability without it. the problem doesnt lie in the realization for the importance of peace but the conditions and ways of reaching it. Blame game is the biggest and foremost hurdle as like the indian govt evry indian on this forum blamed pakistan as a breeding ground for terrorism in india. can anyone open eyes and see what is happening inside pakistan on daily basis?? if it is all about finding instances of paksitan’s involvement in terrorism in india then paksitan too has a long list of accusations against india’s RAW. East paksitan, swat, fata, balochistan and many other problems of pakistan has indian element present in them. we as citizens of both countries should not indulge in this blame game . Peace is achiveable if both countries try to solve their bilateral issues amicably because to quote prime minister manmohan singh “it requires two hands to clap” kashmir, baglihar, sir creek and most important of them terrorism can be solved by changing attitudes on both sides.
lets start from having an unconditional composite bilateral dialogue and then move on to remove the apprehensions in minds of common people like us. lets shun every blame and have a new start. indian and pakistani societies are very similar, we in pakistan enjoy indian movies , indian serials, indian and pakistani literati has common roots too.indians also dont have that grave intentions for pakistan as their politicians in election campaigns display. so we have many avenues to open but first we both should honestly try to mend our mutual behavior.
Indians & Pakistanis are the same people with the same blood group. Infact, partion was not necessary. Hindus & Muslims are living together even now as one nation in India. Infact, India will someday ahve more Muslims than Pakistan. Indian & Pakistani Muslims are marrying each other on a regular basis. Now that we are two seoparate countries, as a minimum there could be a confederation with current borders but one joint military & one foreign ministry. Kashmir problem would disappear overnight since it would be confederation with unrestricted travel but distinct boundaries. Will this happen someday ? Let’s work for it.
Paul writes: “…there is no choice but to return to a subcontinental ethos of cherishing diversity of all kinds.”
—–
I’m not sure what era of sublime diversity-cherishing Paul refers to — Pax Britannica? Asalaam i-Akbar? Empire of Ashoka-the-Reformed? Multiculturalism implies some degree of non-assimilation, which invariably generates steam. Some strong hand has to keep a lid on the pressure-cooker. Witness what happened when the Brits jerked the lid off.
It is perhaps worth noting that Sufism, much suppressed and even terrorized in Pakistan, was historically for Hindus the most palatable flavor of Islam. Fundos of any stripe, of course, are not out to make friends: they practice a sadistic, alientating suppression in the form of exclusion and socio-economic badgering, if not outright violence.
India does not have any dreams of Pakistan’s destablization and conquest. People that believe that are not only immature but also unaware of the real scenarios. A stable Pakistan is in the best interests of South Asia.
The ruling branches of Pakistan have to have a pro-progress stance as opposed to destabilize, bleed and anti-India stance. That is a fundamental ideology that needs to chage.
Again, India is not interested in Pakistan’s affairs. It recognizes Pakistan as a nation that needs to prosper as much as anyone else in the world.
We are as much for progress and prosperity of our neighbors as shoudl be. Only, it cannot come at the cost of our own internal security, sovereignity, and existance.
Well it is childish to say that India is not responsible for the things going on in Pakistan. And at the same time it is even more childish to say that Pakistan is not to involved across wagah.
Come-on everyone! Lets stop the game of denial an puting our head in the sand.
It is high time India stops its policy of destablizing Pakistan which they have pursued since 1947. I dont think the Indian dream of Pakistan falling apart next year is going to be fulfilled in the next couple of centuries. Wake and amend your policy!
What Pakistan is doing is its only line of defence against a foe that is more than triple her size.
I think India has realized that in order to be an economic power house it must have peace ful western border.
For Pakistan too it is better to invest in its development than to put all its resources in counter defence.
I strongly believe that Pakitan India partnership has more to offer us the people of the subcontinent than Pakistan-india Arch rivalry (do ignore criket in this regard as it wont be fun any more)
@Do you think the threat of spreading regional militancy will pave the way for Pakistan and India to work together to combat terrorism?
-India recognizes the regional militancy faced by Pakistan (that is Taliban mostly). Does Pakistan recognize what India calls as terrorism?-NO. What India calls terrorism, Pakistan labels that as political and moral support of Kashmiris. Look at the release of JuD’s Saeed and the recent infiltrations across LoC-some of the terrorists have been caught, others not.
@Is a détente in the offing?
-The devlopments do not suggest that will happen in near future. Indian side has softned its stand and toned down its anger even on such a reckless decision as terrorist Saeed’s release and is willing to talk to Pak, but recent statements from PM Gilani are discouraging.
@And are Pakistan and India ready to revisit the Kashmir issue in the prevailing socio-political climate?
-Pak PM just few days ago said that the political and other…..support to Kashmiris will be resumed. Now it is no brainer that means resumption of terrorism. Resume is an appropriate word if the support ever stopped. PM Gilani’s policy wipes out the progress made by Musharaf with 2 Indian PMs, Bajpai from BJP party and Dr. Manmohan Singh from Congress party (back chanel talks). Pakistan needs to come to a consensus on important decisions like Kashmir and not make a U-turn with a new ruler.
As an indian, I can say that everybody in india wants peace with pakistan. But for any sort of dialogue to start, pakistan must destroy all terrorist camps operating in pakistani kashmir n punjab which preach hate against india and make Mumbai attack like incidents. Hundreds of My country’s innocent civilians die in these attcks and pakistan doesnt even ackwoledge the fact that terror plot had emanated from pakistan and LeT were the culprits when we have given all sort of evidence including all sort of telephone recordings and Kasab’s confession…..
SO the common indian man is distasteful, angry and frustated of pakistani deeds and thinks that pakistan must act to dismantle terror orgs like jaish and lashkar before ant dialogue to begin….
I really wonder, are we just left with one issue that is Kashmir, with so much of poverty and hunger prevailing in both the countries. Why can’t be the dialogues on these subjects? Its time both neighbors should look beyond Kashmir and address their real problems.
Relations between these two countries has been unfortunate over the decades. One may call it, on again and off again and so forth. Co exist or not and nothing in between is the last lesson for both. The rulers in both countries should take pity on their masses. Enough is enough.