Blurring the Lines of Control

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

sushmita — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:36:29 GMT

It's a pity that these things are happening -- which is why it is more important now than ever before to set the record straight. But war is not the answer: dialogue and communication is the key. Thanks Salauddeen for this putting this on the blog: very informative.

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

Salauddeen — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:23:41 GMT

Extract from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Pakistani_textbooks_build_hate_culture_against_India/articleshow/3898659.cms Pak textbooks build hate culture against India 27 Dec 2008, 0239 hrs IST, ARIF MOHAMMED KHAN On Indo-Pak wars, the books give detailed descriptions and openly eulogize ‘jihad' and ‘shahadat' and urge students to become ‘mujahids' and martyrs and leave no room for future friendship and cordial relations with India. According to a Class 5 book, "In 1965, the Pakistani army conquered several areas of India, and when India was on the point of being defeated, she requested the United Nations to arrange a ceasefire. After 1965, India, with the help of Hindus living in East Pakistan, instigated the people living there against the people of West Pakistan, and finally invaded East Pakistan in December 1971. The conspiracy resulted in the separation of East Pakistan from us. All of us should receive military training and be prepared to fight the enemy." The book prescribed for higher secondary students makes no mention of the uprising in East Pakistan in 1971 or the surrender by more than 90,000 Pakistani soldiers. Instead, it claims, "In the 1971 India-Pakistan war, the Pakistan armed forces created new records of bravery and the Indian forces were defeated everywhere." The students of Class 3 are taught that "Muhammad Ali (Jinnah) felt that Hindus wanted to make Muslims their slaves and since he hated slavery, he left the Congress". At another place it says, "The Congress was actually a party of Hindus. Muslims felt that after getting freedom, Hindus would make them their slaves." And this great historic discovery is taught to Std V students, "Previously, India was part of Pakistan."

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

Simer — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 13:55:42 GMT

@ Pawandeep - like the light hearted comment amidst the tough political discussions dude.. cheers

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

pawandeep — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 05:10:14 GMT

Yes, Sushmita I was a bit down with Viral. But now Ok , and thanks for remembering. As I couldn't read KT yesterday, I was quite anxious to read your column there. So I just logged on, and on search put the name "Sushmita". And came the reply..."Sush finally meets her match" - For a second I just thought my words have come true ( You remember once you mentioned about time in your artilce ...and I replied that who knows, time can come....when this column maybe renamed "Now Couple in the city" instead of "Still Single in the city".) But actually it is an artile on Sushmita Sen. But I am sure, the way this blog is getting response, our dear Sushmita Bose is even more known personality than sushmita sen. Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous New Year (2009)

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

ani lata — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:27:08 GMT

sb dear, Happy Happy Happy New Year. May this new year bring a lot of joy & prosperity to u & everybody else. May this new yr bring peace and harmony in the world.

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

Anand — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:03:34 GMT

What do we do? Not an easy question at all. Externally, show some courage, stop begging other countries for help and instead send black ops to Pakistan to either assasinate the leaders of these terrorist groups. Force Pakistan Government to take action against terrorist training camps. Internally, we need to drastically improve our internal security. Create the NIA, empower it and coordinate intelligence between states. Create massive infrastructure projects to provide water, power, roads, telephones, etc so that people in villages don't become naxalites. Create food security so that we can atleast feed our people without buying wheat from outside (extremely important if we end up in a war where supply lines will be cut first). There is no dearth of things to do. We must force our govt. to do these things and not to sit back and discuss things in parliament endlessly. This is the time for visible action by our executive branch and not for empty words by our legislature.

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

Paramjit Singh — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:26:07 GMT

@Anand and All:“When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?” (by Chuck Palahniuk, American freelance Journalist, Satirist and Novelist). We may not be living in the world of offering another cheek to be slapped after being slapped on one, but we can surely keep our tempres controlled. We have to exercise deep restraint if we know that we are being provoked. We have to resist that provocation. If we go to war, how do we know that we could be doing exactly what they wanted to get; more dollars from the world to support them against us. However, I agree with Anand's last sentence of last post, we can't be sitting back and doing nothing. Question is, WHAT???

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

sushmita — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 08:54:41 GMT

Anand: It's so unfortunate that the Pakistani establishment is completely at sixes and sevens. There is not even a semblance of cohesiveness in their strategy, and nobody has a clue as to who is up to what evil machination. The army, the civilian government and the ISI are all doing their own stuff. It's seriously scary. The madcaps there -- at whose behest terrorism is thriving -- don't give a damn about the threat of war and the fact that thousands of their own people could be killed. Honestly, how does one deal with the situation? Hareesh: I loved your Sumo driver's Christmas wishes! Pawandeep: you've been very quiet, all well? And Aniruddha: I don;t know why you ever said that you aren't equipped to conduct arguments on affairs of state! Well done!

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

sahil verma — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 08:44:44 GMT

Merry Christmas everyone. I was out of town, returned to Delhi today and the first thing I did was check out this blog. Good show again! It is nice to come back to so much of healthy debate, and I feel that I am part of a community now.

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

Hareesh Unnikrishnan — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:05:39 GMT

Anirudhha dude,, dont you ever go to sleep?!! :) Dear Sush nd every1 else.. Wish you a Merry Christmas!! Like my friendly neighbourhood "Sumo" driver mentioned... "Sirji, yeh sif 'meri' christmans nahi hai.. yeh sabki hai!!"

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

Anand — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:52:12 GMT

@All: Yes indeed - I Wish You All a Merry Christmas and Happy 2009! I think my point was not clear. As stated previously, I am NOT advocating war with Pakistan right now. BUT, but, but - we should NOT automatically rule this out. We - the citizens of this country - cannot be telling our Government and the people of the world that we will not go to war under any circumstance! Threat of War is a HUGE weapon we have which we must use to our advantage. Our military is the the 3rd biggest in the world and we are spending billions of dollars each year on this force. If we cannot use such an extra-ordinary weapon to our diplomatic advantage then we are being stupid. As citizens, we cannot keep acting afraid of how Pakistan may retaliate and how it might kill our people or destroy our cities. We must keep our threat of war on the table. One building was destroyed in US and they had 2 wars (right or wrong). We have 35000+ people killed over decades and we still want to sit back and do nothing.

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

Aniruddha Dasgupta — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:12:45 GMT

I can not help but totally agree with you Sushmita on the last comment left by you. We have read about wars being fought to remove the bad guys and bring in the good guys. But wars are fought with solid strategy and not just for the sake of it. Even history proves that. George Bush senior could have tried and removed Saddam in the 1st Gulf war but he was smart and had good advisors. He knew that it would only lead to a situation where Iraq would go into absolute chaos without any solid leadership. Simply put, he just did not see a leader who could keep the Shias and the Sunnis from getting at each others throats and end in an uncontrollable ethnic war, something not even the mighty Americans could have contained. We have the proof now, thanks to his son. Same with Pakistan. It just does not have the cohesiveness as a united muslim country. It has the second largest muslim population in the world and incidently also the second largest Shia population after Iran. Being a Saudi backed Sunni majority country and also having such a huge Iran backed Shia population, it certainly does not make a very cordial atmosphere where the communities have been so hateful of each other since the death of the Prophet. With the Pakistani Civilian rulers having proved time and again what a bunch of impotent, power hungry & greedy jokers they are, it is only the Pakistan armed forces that can keep some level of peace in Pakistan. Weaken them and you have the perfect situation for an uncontrollable internal Shia Sunni conflict that would only spill over into India. And then, with the current world financial situation, if we go to war at this moment all our development that was achieved in the last decade will be wiped out and we will be left with a completely destroyed economy. We should be rather focussing on our own internal security problems and try to plug the loopholes in our intelligence system. Let the Pakistanis dig their own graves.

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

Ashish Bose — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 17:17:21 GMT

"Merry Chistmas" to all the 'singles' & 'doubles' in the city.May peace prevail in the region.

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

sushmita — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:11:26 GMT

Anand and everyone else: again, Merry Christmas and peace on earth.

re: Blurring the Lines of Control

sushmita — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:10:11 GMT

Anand: Yes, Krishna did happen to tell Arjuna "yudh kar"... And finally good triumphed over bad/evil, thanks to war and decisive action. But we live in real timnes, and we have come a long way since WW-II... India and Pakistan are both nuclear states now. What happened in Kashmir and what happened in Mumbai are tiny fragments of the horrific canvas that could be a reality if full-fledged war breaks out, God forbid. Look what happened in Iraq just because President Bush suspected the country was harbouring weapons of mass destruction. Is this what we want? We have to be more civilised about the whole thing. There has to be convergence and cooperation, else there will only be more attacks and more blasts and more killings. We'll probably be saying that "yes, we can and we did", but there will be nothing to left to fight for. Let's fight for peace and for our lives. Please do read Ramachandra Guha's piece that appeared in the Lounge section of Mint last Saturday (20 December). This is the link: http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/19225212/India8217s-dangerous-divide.html