Thursday, April 29, 2010
A Letter to the Editor: A TOI news report on Pak sources blaming a vested interests group within Congress can not be brushed aside as an attempt to sow division in our ranks, as Pak exploitation of division within Congress rank is too obvious and clear to blame Pak for the divisions within Congress ranks. There is clear indication that while one group tries its very best to come to terms with the stark fact that the sub-continent cannot always remain divided and at dagger drawn on each other without our people being sucked into negative social and economic vortex that is increasingly sapping our positive energies; another group is dead set to use all its dirty tricks to sabotage every rapprochement opportunity whenever they two neighbouring nations find ways to project common interests of peace and economic cooperation. There is no doubt that Indian National Congress is populated by diverse groups with independent views and agenda that they try to inject in the general policy and this has been its historical strength as well as its monumental weakness. With some quarks of event now, a degree of distance seems to be placing Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi at extreme ends of the common space in the party. Every initiative that is proffered in the name of government is immediately thrown into a tug of war situation. Sonia’s balancing act is increasingly viewed as a desperate attempt to hold the party together. While Congress announces that ‘national sentiment is against talks’, it is actually hiding behind a fig leaf, to project the devious agenda of those in its own rank that thrive on stoking communal fires all over the country. Those elements are not for peace. They are for perpetual war. It time both PM and Sonia Gandhi put their heads together and expose and eject such warmongering elements from their midst, so that the nation can open up to peace moves. Valuable time was lost by arbitrarily prolonging the 26/11 carnage as the linch-pin of our relations with Pak, even though it is widely believed that US agencies had a hand in infiltrating terror groups and ordering terror attacks on demand. People cannot be fooled to believe that Headley was working alone and did not had US agencies behind him. The sad fact is emerging that US lobby in India in general and in Congress in particular, is shielding the US over such a ghastly event that has shattered India’s complacency over its own defense. The motive was to impose further defense collaborations in India by first destabilizing it. We kept asking for Hafiz Saeed’s head without realising that in Pakistan, he has the same clout as Bal Thackeray has in India. Even though there is no comparison between the Indian government and Pak government, as far as their hold on their respective nation’s governance, can India haul up Bal Thackeray for alleged crimes committed by him in Bombay riots? Indian government is fully aware of the futility of focusing on Hafiz Saeed and still it is forced to justify its boycott of talks with Pak on enormous internal pressures which it is routinely and falsely projecting as national sentiments. In fact time and again the most vocal anti-Pak politicians and intellectuals have gone on record, vehemently rooting for an opening with Pak. This proves that Congress will have to clean up its own stables for the common good of the people, not only of India, but the entire SAARC nations. India should lead in ushering peace and normalization in the subcontinent and Congress has sole responsibility to lead, if national sentiment has any real meaning for its divided leadership. Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai [email protected] www.GhulamMuhammed.Blogspot.com http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2010/04/29&PageLabel=14&EntityId=Ar01402&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T SAARC SUMMITCong stopping ‘peacemaker’ PM, says Pak Indrani Bagchi | TNN New Delhi: In July 2001, after Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf stomped out of the Agra summit, he concluded Prime Minister A B Vajpayee was a peacemaker and a visionary but his attempts at peace were stymied by “elements within BJP”. Musharraf failed to wrest a joint statement which would have made Kashmir the “core” dispute. Nine years later, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi blames “elements” within the Congress who are preventing yet another visionary, this time PM Manmohan Singh, from advancing his peace agenda with Pakistan. The India-Pak story hasn’t changed, Pakistan keeps its terror option open while demanding engagement with India. Delhi reels under Pak-sponsored terrorism and is yet to find a way to engage the neighbour in a way that increases the costs for its terror tactics. At every stage, Pakistan tries to play the showstopper, and as Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani shook hands for the cameras on Wednesday evening in Thimphu, Qureshi told a TV channel, “India is stuck in a groove. Undoubtedly, what happened in Mumbai was tragic... but we have had several Mumbais in Pakistan. By disengaging with Pakistan, who are you helping?” Gilani and Singh will meet on the sidelines of the Saarc summit under the glare of international arclights on Thursday, but it’s not yet clear whether that will be the beginning of something new. After the Sharm-el Sheikh fiasco, the PM had to go back on his big steps on Pakistan, because there was no support even from within the Congress to renewed engagement with Pakistan. *National sentiment against talks: Cong *New Delhi: The Congress feels that composite dialogue with Pakistan is in the “deep freeze” and it is unlikely that any “bold” initiative could be unveiled in the near future. The ruling party, ahead of a Singh-Gilani meeting, feels that no government can override the national sentiment which is still not in favour of engaging Pakistan. The mood summed up the party brushing off Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s remarks in Thimphu blaming the Congress for holding back Singh from resuming the composite dialogue. AICC spokesman Manish Tiwari said, “Decisions in diplomacy are well thought out keeping in mind supreme national interests. So for Qureshi to extrapolate is improper.” *Subodh Ghildiyal* FACE-OFF: PM Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani during the inaugural session of the 16th Saarc summit in Thimpu on Wednesday -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
