Tomorrow’s WHYS will be coming to you live from the Taj hotel in Mumbai, one of the places that came under attack on 26/11. Rahul and Mark from the WHYS team went to visit Leopold’s Cafe where eight people were killed. The attacks put the fragile relationship between India and Pakistan under even more pressure and tomorrow we’ll be linking to Madeleine and the team in Lahore for a joint discussion between Indians and Pakistanis.
14 Responses to “The future for India and Pakistan?”
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First of all, the bracketing and hyphenation of India and Pakistan is simply odious.
One is the world’s largest free market democracy and the other is an economic basket case rife with Islamic terrorists. One need only look at the headlines in any newspaper to see the difference. India is setting it’s economy on a 9% growth path and sending probes to the moon and Mars. Meanwhile the Pakistani military begs for alms for it’s religious crusade against India, trains and arms terrorists and extremists of every hue.
The only discussion we need to have is how to stop Pakistani nukes from falling into the hands of their homegrown Taliban. This pestilential menace is the progeny of the Pakistani military intelligence, the ISI, in their unending quest to bleed India through the “war of a thousand cuts”. That is exactly why international terrorists like Masood Azhar, Dawood Ibrahim and Laskwi are able to merrily perpetrate crimes like Mumbai’s 26/11 massacre.
PM Manmohan Singh is perfectly right when he refuses to talk to this junta of criminals unless they extradite these criminals. Should the Prime Minister pursue a more militaristic course of action to make India’s retribution felt, he now has the people’s mandate to do so as well. No dialogue is needed until justice is done.
I worry for the subcontinent with the possibility of nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists. Hopefully the Pakistani government and military has concocted a way to secure these weapons perhaps with the help of the U.S.
I fear we are missing the big picture again. A nuclear-armed state is having a civil war. Pakistan always seemed to me to be THE logical target for terrorists. The BIG Kahuna.
Well Brian from Calif ;
You should be worried for none of this would be happening but for the interference and manipulations from your government.
At this moment in time there is NO civil war in Pakistan nor will there be,unless it is promoted by outside sources.
Looks to me like the big picture was already over when you came into the cinema and what you have been watching is the adverts.
Hi, I am seeing a lot effort fromBBC to make Pakistan = India, Why is this being encouraged by the editorial board in BBC. The terror attacks were organized by the military in pakistan with the objective of creating a harsh response from India.
Infact I will state that Indians do not see anything in paksitan that is worthwhile of a friendship. There is only one lessone from Pakistan to us. ” Ensure that Islamic extremism do not take root in our country”
The problems in India and Pakistan can be solved only though education, development and mutual friendship – the only way to save the youth from getting attracted to terror organizations, especially in Pakistan.
The Mumbai and Lahore attacks were done obviously at the behest of Pakistans ISI. The Mumbai to show an equal insecurity in India as that of Pakistan aka attack on Marriot. The Lanka cricket team attack to show that that the subcontinent itself is a bad place to play cricket. Pakistan’s problem is one of identity. It has to equate itself with India in some way even if negative. The faster people realize this the better. Nukes with Pakistan is a horrendous idea in the first place itself. Even more horrendous than Iran and NK having them. The complicity of the most powerful elements in Pakistan with die hard terror activities can only be underestimated at great risk. This has happened in the past and the situation now is a culmination of many mistakes Western intelligence, Military and political establishment thinktanks and policy initiators have made in the past.
ON THE FUTURE OF INDIA AND PAKISTAN
Both India and Pakistan stand at the cross roads due to historical factors that cannot solve today’s problems that confront them. They have always existed in a state of war though the conflict has been set aside to deal with consequential internal extremism in both countries. On the other hand they are better equipped to be modern industrialized nations of the 21st century.
They need to discard the historical factors that continue to haunt them and also make room for secular states. By taking the Chinese example, this would be the best option for them given the fact that both are multi religious states unlike other parts of the world that have to deal with a choice of just a few religious ideologies.
Secular status could enhance an accommodative statehood where no one will feel belittled by the other. After all they were supposed to be one state during the formative years before resorting to fanatical religious hostilities and pursuit of narrow interests which have been the bane of their own security. As things are now, none of them can give a coherent account to on their need for possessing nuclear arms which could lead to untold destruction to the region. None of them too can make a credible win in the event of war. Stripped of religious divisions disguised as nationalism, the two are nothing but one big India or one big Pakistan thriving in peace and progess.
I agree with some of your readers comments, why is India being equated to Pakistan? Just because there are drug-wars in Mexico, you dont talk about the future of U.S.A….do you ??? That said, I do agree that there needs to be debate over what India needs to do and what Pakistan needs to do… but these are 2 separate topics… India (U.S) needs to think how to prevent the Islamic Extremists (Drug-Lords) from entering their turf and being more secure… While Pakistan (Mexico) needs to fight an internal battle with the Islamic Extremists (Drug-Lords) which could very easily de-stabilize a nuclear-powered nation. At the end of it all, the worst case scenario, if the extremists get a handle on a nuke, they could go east (Kashmir / Delhi) or west and the most likely target would be Israel.
@ George Gibson – How can you say there is no civil war in Pakistan? Or are you arguing the “troubles” are between a U.S. surrogate state (Pakistan) and a wayward tribe (Taliban) that is at war with another U.S. surrogate state (Afghanistan)? Understand the annoyance with my government, but can one argue that Pakistan or Afganistan is an American construction and be creditable?
The debate and the commentaries above have a wealth or ideas as well as an example or how civilized people can discuss together objectively and usefully.
it may be that it is worth having a wider audience through the press and maybe in a specialized magazine such as New Scientist etc
I believe a digest of the lot could be extracted and published somewhere.
One point raised above i consider very important : i.e. a pathway towards secularization of both states such as happens between Germany and France as prompted by the General de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer just after the two countries had been involved in a bloody , damaging and useless war.
One asset obviously is the common mastery of the English language.
Yet another is the keen and pleasant sense of humour.
One step forwards would be the creation of an independent Kashmir.
It was unique in its style and a great deal more can be derived through analysis ot the debate in detail
Infact India ia a declared human desaster and can’t be united without Pakistan. According to my believe & knowledge after USSR down fall Indian human abuse Democratic Govt is scared from Pakistani Marshall abilities & this human desaster is scared for his turn.
After this peacefull transformation Pakistan will be the leader of the world, because of his Geographical appearance & public determination.
Salam Aleikum Brother,
For how many years did you go to school? What is your age? Do you know when educated, intelligent and serious people are talking, you should not make noise?
I wish you and your family best,
With respect,
Shahid
Sorry Pakistan, you have fallen into a trap of your own making . Unless you work very hard and stand on your own feet and stop seeking aid, countries will use and abuse you and you will get into a bigger hole. Have some self respect. Work, dont beg. All your leaders are fake and do not represent the common folk. They are from the elite and not of the people. So they dont feel your pain and hardship. Just look at the fancy clothes they wear. Dont they have any shame ? Where is all this money coming from ? They will continue to hoodwink you get and you into deeper trouble. Kick them out, every single one of them. In every revolution, it’s always the poor who revolt. The Taliban are mostly poor and illiterate. They have revolted, not for reasons of religion, but because they are poor and hungry. If they were well fed and had jobs and were financially secure, would they have revolted ? Would there have been a Taliban at all ? Your leaders are looting you and always have. Get rid of them. All the best.
Pakistan is mistake of history; we should not spend time thinking about its future. Because there is none. Pakistan was a American base for cold war to fight USSR, now it is used to fight American (public relation war) war on terror, once they get Osama or some one else to quench American public anger, they will leave, leaving Pakistan to clear all mess happening now, and Pakistan with no money (frontline state for war on terror tag is not so much inspiring for global investors ) and economically dominant India on one side and not so friendly Afghanistan(India has spent 2 billion dollars so far on Afghanistan development they will definitely take some benefits ) on other will find it difficult to fight ongoing covert war against India. Pakistan can’t keep spending millions on billions on there war machines forever, ignoring poor Pakistani masses. Americans will not be much help to Pakistan in future since they will aligned with states good for there economy (see us -china relation for proof). And last even if by some miracle some Pakistanis (namely Pervez Musharraf silent majority) proves this all wrong, current Pakistani leaders wont allow it to happen since they have already shook the hand with devil and started a war against its own people for a third country. (Resident of Waziristan, balochistan, North-West Frontier Province are Pakistanis after all), because they know already dream of Pakistan is lost. The 1971 is being repeated again this time painfully slow for Pakistan.