Asif Zardari: ‘India & Pakistan Share Blood Ties’
President Asif Ali Zardari has become Pakistan’s first head of state to promise a “no-first nuclear-strike” against India. He talked of the need for change and reconciliation in India-Pakistan relationship, and the possibility of doing away with passports for travel between the two countries.
The surprise statement came when Zardari was addressing the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit at New Delhi on Saturday via a satellite link from his official residence in Islamabad. Telecast live from India by CNN-IBN, the Zardari session was picked up simultaneously by Pakistani news channels.
“Zardari borrowed a quote from his late wife (Benazir Bhutto), who once said that there’s a ‘little bit of India in every Pakistani and a little bit of Pakistan’ in every Indian. He also talked about Indians’ and Pakistanis’ ‘shared bloodlines’.
” ‘I do not know whether it is the Indian or the Pakistani in me that is talking to you today,’ Zardari said, amid applause from his high-profile audience, which included diplomats, politicians and industrialists.
“The President also talked of a common South Asian economic bloc with other countries. He suggested a ‘flexible Indo-Pak visa regime’, eliminating the travel documents now required and replacing them with a smart-card enabled e-visa system.” More here…
The deteriorating relationship with the US administration seems to be prompting Pakistani leaders to abandon the traditional 60-year-old bitter rivalry with India. India and Pakistan have a shared heritage going back to centuries. But that came to an abrupt end in 1947 with the end of the British colonial rule and a bloody partition.
“Polls show that the U.S. already faces ‘mounting popular opposition’ in Pakistan, which has not been significantly influenced by the election of a new civilian government in February,” wrote Jim Hoagland in July 2008 under the heading “India the Key to U.S.-Pakistan Relationship” in RealClearPolitics .
“Pakistani politicians, civil servants and military men have told me in recent months that open ‘collaboration’ with the United States is so ‘dangerous’ that they cannot afford to be seen working with the U.S.
“India’s growing economic power will leave its neighbor in the dust unless Pakistan becomes part of that prosperity. Pakistan’s future will be determined by its relations with India, not by increased U.S. aid or maintaining its support for tribal war in Afghanistan.” More here…
The New York Times has an interesting take on India-Pakistan-US tangle…Please click here.
And to get a flavour of what the blogs are writing in India and Pakistan…here are two samples.
Please click here ….. And here….
3 Responses to “Asif Zardari: ‘India & Pakistan Share Blood Ties’”
I think President Zardari is moving in the right direction. Since it is not possible to change geographical realities it is time to accept ground realities and adjust to them as best as we could. For too long India and Pakistan have wasted their time, energy and vital resources in viewing the other as an enemy. All this must now come to an end. As far as Kashmir is concerned I feel that a solution shall be found if we move forward in other fields. We can surely wait for sometime more having waited for so long already. Of course India too must reciprocate in the same manner.
President Asif Ali Zardari has taken the most appropriate step in Pakistan ever taken by a politician in Pakistan. By and large the Civis are less belligerent towards India than the Generals in Pakistan. Simply because the latter can reap the benefits of anti-India hysteria created through a patriotic Pakistani vs. Indian Enemy stance. Same thing perhaps is true in case of India where the Civis do the same thing against Pakistan. The time has now come to realise that both India and Pakistan have a common destiny but it has b to be reached through two sovereign, independent nations collaborating together for mutual benefits. Where as majority of Pakistanis now do believe that the belligerence towards India have brought no fruits but an over dependence on others, on the other hand India too should refrain from behaving as a would be super power exercising a hegemonistic attitude towards our country being the first step.
Both India and Pakistan share genetics. For instance, the Punjab (in both countries) share a historical genetic base. When Sikhism came into being, it was due to Islam, and the punjabi became a Sikh. Prior to this, when moslems came to India, it was due to Islam, and the punjabi became a moslem. The Punjab is now 65% in Pakistan, despite the Sikh's identification of the Punjab as their homeland.
In terms of India and Pakistan, India should ensure that its future is inherent in its national identity, rather then including 'partnerships' with those countries that are prone to continual religious indoctrination, as this will only lead to 'baggage'.
It would be wise for India to neutralise its embrace with Pakistan, and let Pakistan take its own international seat in the international economy, rather than 'piggy back' on to India's international business success.
As in many Islamic countries, religious doctrines do not allow a true focus on reality, and any 'partnership' with Pakistan will only bring India towards a partnership that cannot sustain competitive value in the international arena. This is because these religious doctrines are based on primitive values which do not hold added value to the international customer, because competitors are not 'baggaged' with this competitive inefficiency.
The issue for India therefore, is whether it requires a further input, interms of doctrines, which dilute the truth, in relation to reality, and hence hold it back from international and national economic success.
It is not a coincidence that China, South Korea and Japan are focusing on partnership and are making joint efforts to overcome the current economic climate. It is also no coincidence that they excluded India (even though India is destined to become the third biggest economy in the world).
This exclusion is entirely due to India's current internal 'religious baggage', India should therefore avoid at all costs, adding to this 'baggage' by embracing Pakistan, because Pakistan (similar to all Islamic countries) is destined to continually suffer from the 'baggage' of Islamic religious interference in its national legislation infrastructure, and therefore prone to more likely staying a Third World country, and that is not the destiny of India.