Just my rambling thoughts on the statements made by India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan following the recent Mumbai blasts,.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Pakistan must prevent militants from launching attacks across the border, after last week’s train blasts in Mumbai. “There has to be a firm commitment that Pakistani territory is not used to support terrorist acts directed against our country,” Singh said aboard his private plane as he headed to the Group of Eight summit in Saint Petersburg.
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan lamented the Indian attitude in the wake of the recent (Mumbai) bomb blasts and said that any talk of postponement or stalling of peace process would tantamount to a victory for the terrorists. He said the acts of terrorism were very much aimed at achieving the same objective of stalling the dialogue process between the two countries.
People of India and Pakistan are now tired of these routine responses from their rulers repeated with boring regularity ever since terrorism raised its ugly head here almost two decades ago. Whereas people in both countries have shown rare patience, tolerance and restraint.
At times I wonder whether there is some method in this madnesss. Is it because there is now a vested interest in the continuation of this situation for all – the U.S. Administration, and the governments in Pakistan and India? Remember my old thesis – the more the uncertainty in the region the more flourishing sale of deadly weapons, fighter planes and armaments. So go on feeding on the insecurities of the people!!!
It is GREED, pure and simple GREED, that is complicating the situation worldwide. As Mahatma Gandhi once put it so beautifully, and I repeat, “there is enough for everybody’s need in this world…but not enough for everybody’s greed.”
I was in Mumbai when President of India APJ Abdul Kalam (himself a devout Muslim) led the residents of this commercial hub of the country in paying homage to the victims of the serial blasts in local trains that left 200 people dead and hundreds seriously injured on July 11.
At the stroke 6.25 pm on July 18 (at this time the first of the seven train explosions took place), life came to a standstill for two minute — vehicles came to a stop, no flights operated, trains stopped in their tracks, screens in theatres went blank, and shopping malls stopped business for two minutes, in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Guwahati, Kolkata and several other bustling cities and towns across the country.
As the Mumbai police band played the Last Post and over 270 sirens across the city signaled the start of mass mourning, President Kalam placed a wreath at a special memorial at Mahim railway station. Hundreds turned up at the Churchgate station to pay their homage.
Please note that entire Mumbai (which has high ethnic and religious mix) on that day presented a perfect picture of a dignified mourning — no slogans, no hysterical outbursts, no “kill the enemy” shouts. Only lighting of the candles and offering of flowers.
I am sure that in similar situations Pakistani people do not shout obscenities against India (except motivated by vested interests), at least I have never seen reports to this effect.
So it would seem that the people of India and Pakistan do not hate one another. The wounds of Partition of the two countries in 1947 have virtually healed. Before the division of India and Pakistan into two countries, the Hindus and Muslims lived quite peacefully for centuries.
But will the leaders of the two countries, and the war machine owners/sellers in the West, ever allow the people here to live in peace…and prosper? I think that economic imperatives, and globalisation, will force the leaders and the governments to open Indian – Pakistan borders within five years.
People living in the Indian subcontinent are by and large happy with a modicum of creature comforts. And then there is the famous Oriental spiritual heritage to lean on in good times as well as in times of adversity. A far cry from those who prefer revelling in blood sports and mayhem.
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.