Whatever be the motives of allowing Iran’s former President Mohammad Khatami to visit five cities of the United States in these unpredictable times – and in the face of opposition from hardliners in both America and Iran – it bodes well for keeping open the door for dialogue/discussion instead of reaching for the trigger in the face of a crisis.
Khatami’s unusual appearance at Washington’s National Cathedral on Thursday evening, urging religious tolerance and political dialogue while protesters chanted and blasted horns outside, was well covered by the mainstream media.
At a news conference in Washington on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Khatami spoke in terms that combined the religious and the temporal, urging a spiritual dialogue among those of different religions even as he criticized what he described as threatening words of their governments, reports The New York Times.
“He repeated his government’s official line that Iran would be prepared to discuss its nuclear program with the world community, but without the precondition of freezing its enrichment of uranium as demanded by a United Nations resolution as well as the United States and its closest allies.
” ‘We are in search of solutions,’ Mr. Khatami said through an interpreter. ‘During the course of negotiations we could even talk about suspensions, the nature of suspensions, the timing of suspensions and the durations of suspensions’.
“He cautioned that ‘the threat of use of force, and language of threat, has never produced a resolution’.
“Mr. Khatami served as President of Iran for two terms, from 1997 to 2005, and is the highest-ranking Iranian to visit Washington since the United States severed relations under President Carter in 1980 after the 1979 revolution and the seizure of American hostages.
” ‘Today no other course is before us but that of recognition of the right of humankind to rule its own destiny, and the manifestation of this right in democratic systems ought not to be limited to liberal democracies,’ Mr. Khatami said in his address.
For dialogue among civilizations to materialize, he said, ‘the East should no longer be the ‘object’ of understanding in the West,’ but should be ‘recognized as a partner in dialogue and communication’.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.