B.RAMAN
There is a Tamil saying: “chozhiyan kudumi summa aadathu.”
Roughly paraphrased, it means: “ If one finds a Brahmin’s tuft moving up and down, one should not presume it must be due to the breeze. There could be a hidden reason for it. One should look deeper.”
I was reminded of this saying on New Year’s Day as I noticed that the Times of India has started an Indians-Pakistanis bhai bhai ( Indians and Pakistanis Are Brothers) campaign under the theme “Aman Ki Asha” ( The Desire For Peace) in association with the Jang group of Pakistan.
The desire for peace one can understand.
The desire for closer people-to-people contacts one can equally understand , but the sudden love of the Times of India for the Jang group one cannot.
If the TOI had joined hands with the Dawn group of Karachi, that would have made some sense. No other media group of Pakistan enjoys as much respect among the people of Pakistan and in the international community as the Dawn group does.
But, no other media group of Pakistan has been as much controversial and as money-minded as the Jang group has been over the years.
And no other media group of Pakistan has been more opportunistic in its editorial policies than the Jang group.
It is alleged in Pakistan: Look where the money is. One will find Jang there.
The sudden love of the TOI for Pakistan and the Jang group is as mysterious as the sudden love of L.K.Advani for Mohammad Ali Jinnah some years ago and as the sudden admiration of Jaswant Singh for Jinnah last year.
Nobody can question the ardent wish of the TOI leadership for peace with Pakistan.
We all want peace with Pakistan.
We all like the people of Pakistan---- whether they are Punjabis, Sindhis, Balochs, Seraikis or Pashtuns.
As I had pointed out in an article on India’s relations with Pakistan and China sometime ago, the civil societies of India and Pakistan have greater positive vibrations for each other than the civil societies of India and China.
And yet there has never been genuine peace between India and Pakistan.
What is the reason?
Not Kashmir.
Not Balochistan.
Not the Lashksar-e-Toiba and the myriad terrorist organizations to which the State and civil society of Pakistan have given birth.
Barring China, no other country in the world thinks and talks well of Pakistan and its people.
No other country in the world triggers more negative vibrations in the hearts and minds of people than Pakistan.
There are various reasons for it.
Because of the distorted interpretations of Islam in Pakistan ever since it was born in 1947. One does not come across such distorted interpretations anywhere else in the Ummah.
Because of the cruelty and barbarity which have come to be associated with Islam in Pakistan. One does not come across such cruelty and barbarity anywhere else in the Ummah.
Because of the perfidious nature of the Pakistani statecraft.
Because of so many other reasons.
Why all the jihadi terrorists of the world flock to Pakistan?
Not merely because of its sanctuaries.
Not merely because of the sponsorship of the ISI.
It is also because irrational individuals with a distorted mindset find themselves more comfortable in Pakistan than anywhere else in the Ummah.
One must call a spade a spade.
One must face the truth.
To point out all this does not mean one wishes ill of Pakistan and wants it to perish.
Quite the contrary.
The real well-wishers of Pakistan and its people are those who have the honesty and courage to draw attention to the negative features of Pakistan and call on the Pakistani society to rid themselves of these features.
We all want good relations with Pakistan and its people.
The TOI-Jang Bhai Bhai is not the way of doing it.
It has to be done through honest debate promoted and moderated by people, who will not be suspected of having any ulterior interest in their sudden-found leave for Aman between the two countries.( 1-1-10)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
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7 comments:
Its a trap for india sir. it is just a wishful thinking.
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Absolutely right, Sir! Only after there was thorough de-Nazification in Europe after WW-II was real peace achieved. Similarly, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh need to be thoroughly de-Jihadized for real peace and prosperity in South Asia. Until then all efforts to sow roses by the population on both sides will reap only bombs.....
Raman Sir,
I was earlier giving an analogy for this. Imagine Ruchika Girhotra's father being asked to say sorry to SPS rathore for causing the poor SOD too much trouble. This fits with the same bracket.
Jung, or call it dung is not publishing these things in pakistan. Let me remind the gullible Indians what 'Quiad -e- azam Mohd Ali Jinnah said to Mohan das karamchand gandhi in one of the conversations, " We are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of value and proportions, legal laws and moral codes, customs and calendar, history and tradition, aptitudes and ambitions, in short we have our own distinctive outlook on life and of life. By all canons of International Law we are a nation."
I think this needs to be rebuffed and this shameful act of Indian elite to get into this one sided love affair with terrorist state of Pakistan must stop. It is funny that even after 26/11 and pakistan refusing to do anything about mumbai carnage, ToI-Let is publishing this nonsense.
Why do need to fall in love with pakis? Why can't be simply neighbors and not necessarily hate them also? Why can't we grow up that it is not essential for mature people to be either in love or hate. We can be courteous also.
Gulzar, along with Kuldeep nayyar and Burqa dutt should go back to dear pakistan and preach them. This pacifism must end. We need not be hostile to Pukistanis but why the hell should go and hug them? Even more shameful is the behaviour of Indian media when Pukistan has done zilch for the mumbai carnage. TOI-Let is serving American interests in India.
This is a pernicious attempt by rabidly anti-national Indian leftists, communists and jholawalas who have infiltrated into English media in droves. India has absolutely nothing to gain by this while Pakistan will benefit immensely. It is designed to defang the Indians and encourage them to recieve blows from Pakistan repeatedly with inertness.
Basically, Pakistani government and the Goras who back them and arm them know very well that the apple cart — Pakistan hitting India repeatedly through terror — can be upset once India makes up its mind to hit back and pay in the same coin. This “south Asian” business and “both are essentially the same people” campaigns are funded by the Goras in India to thwart exactly this possibility. They use TOI and Rediff for this purpose where they have made strategic investments to have editorial control.
It is stupid to think that peace between two countries depends on the goodwill of the two peoples, one of whom is on the recieving end of bomb blasts and shootings orchestrated by the other.
The people and their feelings do not matter at all in these things. It is the governments which drive these as a matter of strategy. The problem lies in the Pakistani ruling junta and its Islamic fanatacism, violence and terror as instruments of foriegn policy. The TOIlet’s communist editors and deranged owner wants to hide this basic fact from ordinary Indians.
Only idiots can think that these kind of issues can be solved by westernised elites of two countries listening to ghazals together in five star hotels. This is a case where common people have more common sense than the “intellectuals” which have appointed themselves as thought leaders of the Indian society.
TOI-let is an American mouthpiece. Most of this pacifism business — peace at all costs with Pakistsan — has been orchestrated by the Anglo Americans in India, right from their propping up of Gandhi and Nehru. Today, they are using Indian leftists — the quintessential anti-nationals — as useful idiots in this game. The idea is to demilitarize the Hindu society completely.
Does GoI indulge in senseless peacenickery with pakistan? Or is there a method to the madness?
What was the motive behind Havana, S-e-S and this TOI move?
Is it to show the Rape class that India wishes it no harm, while it is more obvious that the US might let loose hell within pakistan, that pakistan is on the brink of secessionist forces?
Is there a case being prepared to somehow mitigate pakistan's mad reaction towards India to its division?
Raman sir,
Gagan brings out a completely different angle to this whole debate which is very much plausible. It goes in to different game altogether.
@Gagan,
I agree with you that all this may have been orchestrated by GOI behind the scenes under cues form Amirkhan. With the recent CIA base bombing , Only god know what will be the retribution process.
This 'Indi-Paki bhai bhai', Saghir Ahmed's report on more autonomy for Kashmir, the so-called 'track two diplomacy', all ties up with US need to get out of Afghanistan, which is possible only by offering Pak a lolly for keeping up the fight against Taliban.
Kashmir could be the lolly.
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