“Muted”…
“India’s official reaction to the imposition of emergency rule in neighbor Pakistan, which it has fought three wars with, has been muted and cautious”. VOA correspondent Steve Herman in New Delhi explains why.
“The director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, retired Indian army major general Dipankar Banerjee, says India will continue to be reticent to avoid becoming part of the political conflict in Pakistan.
” ‘Unless things change substantially and take on a different hue or different forces emerge within Pakistan, India would not like to get involved in any sense within the democratic process within Pakistan,’ he said.
“The two neighbors have fought three wars since Pakistan was carved out of India at the end of the era of British rule. Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors have thawed recently and General Banerjee at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies says India is in no rush to see President Musharraf depart the stage in Pakistan.”
One blogger has asked me isn’t India worried about the developments in Pakistan? With tongue firmly in my cheek, let me say that it is for the ‘weakened’ and ‘confused’ Western powers to worry about things in which they meddle without knowing the consequences.
In India and Pakistan, especially the former, the middle classes have gained enough confidence to handle their own affairs. The problem arises when the naive outside powers interfere and back forces inimical to the development of democratic institutions.
India is like a huge elephant which wants to live in peace with Pakistan. So India has nothing to worry. All the three wars between these nations were fought in the cold war era, with controversial roles played by the erstwhile Soviet Union and the USA.
If the Western powers get off the back of not only India and Pakistan but elsewhere, the local people know how to settle down and sort out their problems…The mantra is enlightened self-interest promoted through diplomacy and not through hammer all the time.
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.