Thursday, January 08, 2004
Indo-Pak friendship???
Indo-Pak peace talk is the flavor of the month. A new impetus has been given to the peace talks with Vajpayee's travel to Pak for the SAARC meeting. But this is not the first time that the feeling of progress in talks is felt. The same "high" was felt during Vajpayee's Lahore bus tour too. And although ppl say that both sides have their own "compulsions" now and hence itz different this time, there are lot of indications that ground realities in Pak has hardly changed. Consistently, reports in Indian media say that Pak reporters are as hawkish as before......esp the Urdu media. This news report says as much.
While I do agree that ppl-to-ppl interaction is the best way of fostering relationship, I do not think that the attitude of the ppl on the other side has really changed. I had alwayz believed that peace with Pak (and for that matter even with Bangladesh) is impossible......the only soln is Pak ceasing to exist. And although I hope that time will prove me wrong, I wud be very surprised if thatz the case.
Indo-Pak peace talk is the flavor of the month. A new impetus has been given to the peace talks with Vajpayee's travel to Pak for the SAARC meeting. But this is not the first time that the feeling of progress in talks is felt. The same "high" was felt during Vajpayee's Lahore bus tour too. And although ppl say that both sides have their own "compulsions" now and hence itz different this time, there are lot of indications that ground realities in Pak has hardly changed. Consistently, reports in Indian media say that Pak reporters are as hawkish as before......esp the Urdu media. This news report says as much.
While I do agree that ppl-to-ppl interaction is the best way of fostering relationship, I do not think that the attitude of the ppl on the other side has really changed. I had alwayz believed that peace with Pak (and for that matter even with Bangladesh) is impossible......the only soln is Pak ceasing to exist. And although I hope that time will prove me wrong, I wud be very surprised if thatz the case.
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