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ACHA is an non-profit, non-political organization, which is dedicated to promote peace and harmony among South Asians regardless of where they live. Current Board Members are Pritam Rohila (President), Jagdish Grewal (Secretary), Dr. Abdul Qayum (Treasurer), Dr. Kanak R. Ravel, Gulzar Ahmed, Ishvar Patel and Susheela Hoefer. Dharam Yadav is the Honorary Financial Advisor. For more information about ACHA and comments about ACHA Bulletin, please contact us at by telephone at 503-362- 4635, or 503-658-4715, or by email at pritamr@open.org, or visit our Web Page at http://ecumene.org/ACHA/ACHA.htm . The Web Page is maintained by Dr. Ingrid H. Shafer in Ecumene.Org, an Internet Domain she has dedicated to interreligious dialogue and global peace.
This Bulletin is being relayed as a part of ACHA's South Asian community service program. Currently, it is being sent out every other Wednesday to about 400 individuals in Africa, Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, U.K., and USA. Please let us know (pritamr@open.org), if you want to have your name removed from our email distribution list. Also, please let us know if someone should be added to the list. Comments, letters to editor, and short articles are also welcome and can be sent to the same address. ACHA BULLETIN 2/24/99 Special Issue: India - Pakistan relationships (Next issue due on 3/3/99)
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HOLI HAI, BHAI HOLI HAI! * God, let me discover great, new qualities in people I have known for years. (From Daily Word 2/11/99) Learning about something new is exciting. Yet learning more about someone or something familiar is an experience that opens my eyes, my mind and my heart to al kinds of possibilities. I appreciate the unique beauty of the earth in all its seasons. I discover great, new qualities in people I have known for years. All of this comes about because I let go and let God. I begin in prayer,"God, teach me to see and hear the beauty and sacredness in all life. I put aside all of my preconceived ideas about what people are capable of doing and being and let You open my eyes to the majesty and mysteryYou are unfolding through them. I let go and let You teach and inspire me. * Hip, Hip, Hurray Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan by Pritam K. Rohila, Ph.D. In India there were threats by Shiv Sainiks to block the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpaee bus to Pakistan. But, he paid no heed to them and he went there anyway. In Lahore, Pakistan, widespread protests were organized in Lahore by Jamaat-e-Islami and other activists against this peace initiative by India's Prime Minister. General Parvez Musharraf, Air Chief Marshall Parvez Mehdi and Admiral Fasih Bokhari refused to participate in the historic ceremony to welcome Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpaee at the border. They believed that their welcoming "an enemy nation in this manner" at Wagah would send wrong signals and jeopardize the prestige, dignity and honor of Pakistani armed forces. But, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief went ahead with his plans anyway. We applaud this bold initiative by the two Prime Ministers. * January 30, New Delhi, India: Former prime ministers of India .P. Singh and I.K. Gujral and other leaders such as H. K. Surjit and A.B. Bardhan led a march of people here to promote communal harmony and to protest the increasing atrocities in India against minorities. * February 12, Madras, Tamil Nadu, India: Even as parts of the country are witnessing atrocities against minorities, a chicken-shop owner in Madras stands out as a symbol of secularism by wearing a cross around his neck and sporting a huge tilak on his forehead. Born and brought up in an orthodox Roman Catholic family, Peter had turned a staunch devotee of the Hindu Goddess Amman ever since the goddess "chose" him a decade ago to help the needy through Her divine spirit. For the 35-year-old truly secular man, Fridays are devoted to Goddess Amman and Sundays to Virgin Mary. Hundreds of people throng his house in Adyar here on Fridays to listen to his prophecies. "Christianity preaches love and purity in life and Amman is no exception", he says. * February 13, Islamabad, Pakistan: The first Indo-Pak parliamentary conference discussed measures to stabilize nuclear regime in the South Asian region and explore ways to make peace than engage in a nuclear war. Organized by the Jung group of newspapers, the two-day conference, that ended today, was attended by parliamentarians belonging to various political groups in the two countries. Addressing the Conference, Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said, "We can either remain mired in the past and our relationships frozen in time. Or we can reverse the tide of history and embarked on a future that is tension free and characterized by cooperative engagement." The former Indian Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jhakar urged the to countries to wage their real war " against hatred, against poverty and ignorance." "We cannot continue on the path of nuclear contention and arms competition and arms competition," argued Aitzaz Ahsan, leader of the opposition in Pakistan senate. He added, "If we do, Pokhran and Chaghi will have blasted our dreams out of orbit." *February 14, Beijing, People's Republic of China: Chinese Foreign Minister and a senior Indian diplomat announced here today that India and China will resume dialogue later this month in an effort to normalize their bilateral relationship. * February 18, Lahore, Pakistan: The Lahore High Court on Thursday validated the marriage of a woman and the man she married for love, thus allowing them to stay together, and sentenced the cop who detained them to jail, court officials disclosed. According to details, Humaira Butt 28, and her husband, Mehmood Butt, were pronounced legally married, after a ten-month ordeal they had faced, which included detention and excesses by police. * February 20, Ammankatakara, Kerala, India: Marking a rare moment in the social renaissance of Kerala, T K Subramanian, a 60-year-old dalit was given 'Sanyasa Deeksha,' and made a priest after several decades, yesterday. At the end the of ten-hour long traditional rituals performed amidst the chanting of hymns, which started at Brahma Muhurtam, Subramanian - a member of Pulaya community - became Swami Visudhananda after receiving Deeksha from Guru Nishkanandapuri, chief of Sri Ramakrishna Mission at Ammankatakara in Pathanamthitta district. The event, held under the aegis of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, assumed much significance as he was the first member of Pulaya community to be ordained as priest and the first from any Scheduled Caste or Tribe, after the time of Sree Narayana Guru. Subramanian completed his degree from Christ College, Irinjalakuda, in 1964 and worked in the telecom department till 1996. He recalled his visit to Poonkunnam Sri Ramakrishna Ashram as a turning point in his life. He later stayed in the ashram as a paying guest. * February 21, Lahore, Pakistan: India and Pakistan signed an Memorandum of Understanding identifying all the complex issues to be resolved. They agreed to intensify efforts to resolve all pending disputes, including Kashmir. They have decided to give each other advance notification of ballistic missile flight tests and take steps to reduce the risk of accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons. Prime Minister Vajpayee promises to ease visa restrictions. Earlier in the day, he insisted on visiting the Minar-e-Pakistan despite being dissuaded by some of his advisers * February 22, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Secretary-General Mairaj Mohammad Khan welcomed the visit of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Lahore declaration. He said that had the government taken the parliament and the opposition into confidence, it could have avoided the unpleasant protests' by some political parties. Speaking at the party workers meeting, Mr Khan said, the Lahore declaration represents a new beginning that can open broad vistas of peace, cooperation and the progress for both India and Pakistan, provided that the main obstacle in the path of good relations between the countries, the Kashmir issue, is settled on the basis of the right to self-determination of the people of Kashmir. The PTI leader urged China, India and Pakistan, to align themselves by settling all disputes peacefully so as to meet the challenges of what can be the coming "Asian century." Therefore, he said, it is imperative to develop cooperative and peaceful relations so that our energies and resources are diverted towards the well-being of our people, the bulk of whom have been denied the basic necessities of life far too long. * February 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka: The peace-loving people on Friday will say 'no' to the war in one voice at a peace march and a meeting organized by the National Alliance for Peace (NAP). "We want their voice to be heard by politicians and to create an atmosphere conducive for peace talks eventually to end the war," Professor Tissa Vitarana of the organising committee said. The Peace March which will begin from Campbell Park at 2 p.m. will serve as a rallying point for people of all walks of life yearning for peace. The meeting will be held at Hyde Park at 4 p.m. Prof. Vitarana added the war has already ruined many facets of our national life. "It has created a gun-culture in the South and subversives are now linked with the underworld gangs. Innocent people are victims of their activities." "We just cannot ignore the destructive forces around us. Therefore, it is high time we pressed the authorities to take immediate action to begin talks with LTTE to reach a lasting solution," he said. Meanwhile, a recent survey conducted by Prof. Hettige of the Colombo University has shown that the majority of the people including Tamils were for peace and they denounced the war. Prof. Hettige said most of the people supported the devolution of power. * There can be no greater legacy that we can leave behind than to do away with mistrust. The text of Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speech at the banquet organized at Lahore by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief, during the former's Feb 18-20 visit to Pakistan. (From Rediff on the NeT 2/21/99). Mr Prime Minister, friends, sisters and brothers: As we break bread together; a new century and a new millennium knocks on our doors. Fifty years of our independence have gone by. On one side there is pride and on the other regret. Pride because both the countries have been successful in retaining their independence; but regret because even after 50 years we have not liberated ourselves from the curse of poverty and unemployment. I am grateful to you, Mr Prime Minister, for hosting this banquet in such a historic location. It was in this magnificent fort that Shahjahan was born; it is here than Akbar lived for over a decade. My delegation and I are overwhelmed by the warmth of your welcome, and the gracious hospitality extended to us. Mr Prime Minister, you have upheld the nobility of this fort and the tradition of the historic city of Lahore. On this occasion, I am reminded of the lines of the 11th century poet Mas'ud bin S'ad bin Salman. 'Shud dar gham 'Lohur rawanam Yarab! Yarab! Ki dar arzu-e anam Yarab!' (My soul goes out in longing for Lohur, O God! How I long for it) Excellency, this is the first visit by an Indian prime minister to Pakistan in 10 years. I am delighted to be here. When I inspected the guard of honour and saw the beautiful panorama of the setting sun, I was overwhelmed by mixed feelings. It gave me joy that I was returning here after 21 years with the message of friendship. My regret is that we have spent so much time in mutual bitterness. It is unworthy of two nations the size of India and Pakistan to have wasted so much time in mutual ill-will. Earlier when I came to Pakistan, I was alone. This time we have representatives from every section of Indian society. The bus service between Lahore and Delhi is not a means only to ease travel from one country to another. The running of the bus between the two countries symbolises the desire of the people to improve relations and come together. Indeed, if this was only a bus made of metal, it would not have caused such excitement and expectations, not only in our two nations but all over the world. It is our duty, Mr Prime Minister, to pursue the desires and wishes of our peoples; to develop, trust, confidence, amity and to create a solid structure for co-operation. We have been encouraged that our interaction in recent months has focussed on issues which directly benefit the lives of our peoples. Our two countries have engaged within the composite dialogue process to work out mechanisms to ensure that humanitarian concerns are addressed quickly; that possibilities of economic and commercial co-operation such as sale of power are identified and pursued; that confidence-building measures are discussed and agreed upon. But this marks only a beginning. We will, together, give directions to our officials to accelerate what we have jointly set in motion. We have also discussed those areas of relationship on which we do not see eye to eye. That is only inevitable. As we seek to resolve issues, we have to be conscious that there is nothing which cannot be solved through goodwill and direct dialogue. That is the only path. I am convinced that there is nothing in our bilateral relations that can ever be resolved through violence. The solution of complex outstanding issues can only be sought in an atmosphere free from prejudice and by adopting the path of balance, moderation and realism. To those that preach, practice or foment violence, I have only one message: understand the simple truth of the path of peace and amity. That is why, as part of the composite dialogue process, we welcome sustained discussions on all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. As we approach a new millennium, the future beckons us. It calls upon us, indeed demands of us, to think of the welfare of our children and their children, and of the generations that are yet to come. I have brought but one message from India. There can be no greater legacy that we can leave behind than to do away with mistrust, to abjure and eliminate conflict, to erect an edifice of durable peace amity, harmony and co-operation. I am confident that through our combined efforts we will succeed in doing so, no matter how hard we have to work in achieving it. Permit me to extend to you, Mr Prime Minister and to Begum Sahiba a most cordial invitation to visit India. Let me assure you that you will find in India a very warm welcome. We look forward to receiving both of you soon in India. I express my best wishes for your progress and prosperity, for the establishment of durable peace and co-operation between India and Pakistan. * To Pakistan with love: A gift by Urdu poets of India Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on his February 20 bus trip to Pakistan, was expected to carry a special gift for poets across the border. The unusual gift is an emotional rendition by noted Urdu poet and Jnanpith award-winner Ali Sardar Jaffri from his album Sarhad (Border) , reflecting the desire of the Indian people for a peaceful solution to the disputes that have divided the two neighbors. "Guftagu band na ho, Baat se baat chale Subah tak sham-e-mulakaat chale... Regzaron se adavat ke guzar jayenge Khoon ke dariyaon se hum paar utar jayenge" (Keep the dialogue going, one word leading to another, The evening rendezvous lasting till dawn We shall cross the deserts of hate And ford the rivers of blood). The poet, who was invited to join the prime minister's delegation but had to decline on account of ill health, has sent a set of 10 cassettes of Sarhad to Vajpayee to be gifted to poets and writers of Pakistan. The cassette contains five poems by Jaffri dedicated to the hopes and aspirations of the people for better Indo-Pak relations. Another poem is Subah Farda which calls upon the people of the two countries to forget the bitter past and usher in a new dawn. ''Isi sarhad pe kal dooba tha suraj hoke do tukde,In an accompanying letter to the prime minister, Jaffri has quoted the legendary Mirza Ghalib: "Ek Brahmin ne kaha hai ye saal bahut achcha hai" (a fortune-teller has said this is a very good year). Jaffri describes as very positive Vajpayee's decision to travel to Pakistan, and exudes confidence that it will yield very good results. In the letter written in Urdu in the Devanagri script, the poet has said better Indo-Pak relations would guarantee a better destiny for the subcontinent and South Asia. "The hearts of lakhs of people are with you as you embark on this noble mission," he said, adding, "Lahore ka safar mubarak ho" (happy journey to Lahore). *Wagah, Wagah by Harkirat Singh at the Wagah check post (From Rediff on the NeT 2/17/99) On Saturday (2/20/99), Atal Bihari Vajpayee will become the first Indian prime minister to arrive at this border post, enroute to Lahore, on board a Delhi Transport Corporation luxury coach. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief will welcome his Indian counterpart on the Pakistan side, and demonstrate to the world that despite tensions, the two countries, can, still, live together as peaceful neighbours. In fact, the very purpose for establishing this post way back in 1947 was to promote peace and communal harmony between the people of the two countries who then witnessed communal hatred and mayhem that gripped the sub-continent following Partition. One can still recall the words of Brigadier Nazir Ahmed of Pakistan who along with Brigadier Mohinder Singh Chopra of the Indian army set up the post midway between Amritsar and Lahore. 'We hope and pray that we both now live up to the expectations we built up and also that of the public,' Brigadier Ahmed wrote in his final note to Brigadier Chopra, after establishing the check post on October 11, 1947. The two brigadiers belonged to the same elite formation of the Sixth Royal Battalion. After Partition the arduous task of maintaining peace along this part of the then undemarcated border was assigned to Brigadier Chopra who then commanded the 123 Infantry Brigade and Brigadier Ahmed on the Pakistan side. The two former colleagues did their best to perform an uphill task of escorting and defending millions of refugees. 'Ours was a difficult task as there were no pillars or markers to suggest which was our land and which theirs,' Brigadier Chopra later recalled in his book, 1947, A Soldier's Story. On the orders of the two brigadiers, a few hastily white washed drums and a rubble of stone were put along the Sher Shah Marg to mark the new international border between India and Pakistan.Some tents were pitched on either side. Two sentry boxes painted in the national colours of the two countries and a swing gate to regulate the refugee traffic was erected. Two flag masts were also put up on either side and a brass plaque commemorating the historic event was installed. On October 11, 1947, the post came into existence when the two brigadiers and former regimental colleagues met at Wagah village which was close to the check post in Pakistan territory and signed the historical treaty regarding the establishment of the post. The immediate outcome of the meeting between the brigadiers was the troops stationed on either side of the Punjab border. Fifty one years later, despite the wars that the two countries have fought against each other, the Border Security Force and their Pakistani counterparts, the Pakistan Rangers, manning the check post have not forgotten the purpose behind the establishment of the post by the two brigadiers. Even, when terrorism was at its peak in Punjab, there was no tension here, and the BSF and the Rangers maintained cordial relations. From time to time, the troops even exchanged pleasantries. An aura of national pride envelops the post and an instance of this is the Retreat ceremony conducted here just before sunset every day. Whether it is the clicking of boots or the high pitched voices of the BSF and Rangers or the lowering of flags of the respective countries, each exercise or movement of the over six feet tall jawans participating in the ceremony on either side is performed simultaneously indicating the close liaison that those in charge of the security of the post have with each other. The post has also become an important spot for holding flag meetings between BSF and Rangers officers to sort out problems that arise from time to time along the Indo-Pakistan border. In 1984, India banned the entry of Pakistan nationals and Pakistan followed suit by banning the entry of Indian nationals following the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya. These decisions have led to a fall in passenger traffic through the only official road link between the two countries. Now only foreigners pass through the post. The governments have also not heeded demands by traders that the check post be open to facilitate trade via this road route. Only exports from Afghanistan are permitted from here; Indo-Pakistan trade is conducted on the Attari-Lahore rail route. Today, the post is a tourist attraction with visitors flocking to it, on either side, to witness the evening retreat ceremony. Dear Pritam, Thank you for the excellent (2/10) editorial! I am proud to have the opportunity to work with you. For some thirty years I have held up Hinduism to my students as presenting an ideal of non-exclusive openness (in the sense of religious tolerance) to other religions, and have told them how much we Christians with our history of exclusivity, of crusades and pogroms can learn from that aspect of the Hindu tradition. And now, this! I have nightmares of the burning of that man and his sons, the burning of someone who lived his faith, working among lepers. The burning of children simply because they were his. Yes, I can remind my students of all the horrid things we have done in the name of Jesus, the two thousand Jews burned alive in Strassburg, the burnings of witches and heretics. But two wrongs don't make a right . . . I noticed that your association is open to all. I can certainly subscribe to your declaration of commitments -- those have been the basic commitments of my life since I was a teenager. What should I do to join (other than sending a check)? Peace, *The bus can bring a Nobel prize by Eqbal Ahmad (from Dawn 2/21/99) Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's bus journey to Lahore is unquestionably a historic event. Nevertheless, a question remains: will the two prime ministers make history? If they do, they would most likely win the next year's Nobel Prize for peace and, more importantly, will be remembered as among the great statesmen of our time. They make an unlikely pair of peacemakers. India's 73-year-old prime minister has been for all hisadult life an activist, then leader in the RSS, a militant wing of the Hindu nationalist movement. Making peace with Pakistan has never been his party's preference. Furthermore, he leads a shaky and cantankerous coalition, a fact that renders decision making arduous and risky. His Pakistani counterpart too is linked to conservative constituencies. Punjab's landed gentry has been traditionally hawkish. The military, drawn largely from Punjab, is distrustful of India and wary of how the end of Pakistan's hostility with it would affect the country's standing and its own institutional future. The "national security" establishment in both countries regard normalization of relations between the two states as nothing short of national disaster. Even a significant portion of Pakistan's business community, to which Mr. Sharif belongs, worries about the costs to it of freer trade with India. Both prime ministers confront a vocal and violent minority opposed to Indo-Pakistan detente. As against these, logic, wisdom, and popular sentiment favour their mission. It is not uncommon for conservative leaders to accomplish what liberal and reputedly enlightened ones fail to do. French socialists, among them Mendes France and Guy Mollet, did not end the very savage warfare in Algeria. Charles de Gaulle did. He was brought to power by a revolt of the hardliners who were determined to keep Algeria French, and became the unlikely dismantler of France's empire in Africa. Richard Nixon made his political career as an anti-communist crusader. At one point during the Korean war he openly advocated the use of nuclear weapons against China. As a Congressman, then as vice-president he spewed fiery vitriol against the Chinese government and leaders. Yet he was the first American president to visit China and regarded the re-establishment of US relations with the Peoples Republic as the greatest achievement of his presidency. A.B. Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif may well be the latest among those unlikely peacemakers. The timing of their meeting is propitious. The nuclear tests of May 1998 have underlined the great risk in continuing hostility between neighbours barely three minutes from Armageddon. A mutually agreed set of rules on safety, deployment and warning is now a requirement for preventing thermo-nuclear holocaust by accident, individual madness, or miscalculation. Possession of nuclear capability by both countries has yielded a security environment characterized by deterrence so that neither side can contemplate war, a point underlined on Siachen Heights by Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff. But the assumption of deterrence produces new temptations and raises the risks of miscalculating the other side's forbearance. As a new nuclear power the United States behaved criminally once when it bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The second time it miscalculated the effectiveness of deterrence and ordered its armed forces to cross the 38th parallel in Korea. The miscalculation cost a milllion lives and a stalemate that continues to this day. The third miscalculation occurred in Vietnam where its repeated nuclear blackmail failed to break either the Vietnamese morale or the Soviet and Chinese support for it. In two of the three instances the US paid a high price for its miscalculations. Washington recognized the value of "detente" only after its Vietnam debacle. The management of deterrence demands a new logic of caution, a limit on ambition, removal of ideological blinders, a lowering of tension and taming of hostilities. Many commentators have emphasized the need for a regime of nuclear restraint. Good, but not enough! As the cold war amply showed, nuclear deterrence raises the temptation to 'low intensity warfare', a lethal game that can spell doom in both India and Pakistan. The bus diplomacy allows one to hope that in less than a year after the nuclear tests Indian and Pakistani leaders are sensing the risks which American policy makers took decades to comprehend. It could not be happening in a more deserving region. At least half of South Asia's more than one billion people barely subsist. More than half are illiterate and do not have access to potable water. These legatees of great civilizations are today among the most wretched on earth. They deserve to be given life and raised to the level of humanity. And this is not possible without regional cooperation, without a change in priorities from bullets to bread. At a recent international conference in Delhi delegates from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal repeatedly remarked that there was desperate need for open trade and regional cooperation in South Asia, yet it was blocked by the squabble between India and Pakistan. "We are all hostages to your hostilities", said a Nepalese scholar. "Will the bus trip lead to peace?" many people ask in Delhi. 'Let us hope' was all one could say. There are reasons to hope. The first is that the two prime ministers are serious men. Occasionally, they get serious about the wrong thing, such as Hindutva or the Fifteenth Amendment. But in this case they appear to be seriously wanting to do the right thing. Secondly, personal likes and dislikes matter in negotiations. Those who know them well say that Messrs Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif have developed a rather great fondness for each other, are inclined to comprehend each other's viewpoint, recognize each other's domestic constraints, and trust each other's intentions. "I have seen both together and I have talked to each separately", said one insider, "and found the chemistry between them to be unusually positive." If each believes that the other is sincere about peacemaking, they may well make progress beyond the symbolism of bus ride, buggy ride and Moghul pomp in Lahore. The domestic environment is also favourable in both countries. The euphoria over the nuclear tests has worn out. Its economic costs are being felt, and its risks have begun to be understood. Hence, the promise of progress in Indo-Pakistan relations has caught the popular imagination. Welcoming youths drowned out the Jamaat-i-Islami protesters against the test run of the Delhi-Lahore bus service. Frowns and condemnations greeted the Shiv Sena's messing up of the cricket pitch in Delhi. The start of the test series was widely welcome. Both governments ignored the provocations and carried on with the plans for the bus and the test matches. The test match fans in Chennai were friendly, received an honour lap from the visiting team, and gave the victorious Pakistanis a standing ovation. On the eve of Mr. Vajpayee's bus trip this visitor in Delhi finds the Indian press and people anticipating the outcome with enthusiasm and anticipation. In fact, hopes on both sides are high. It is significant that despite the loud nay sayers of the right, the main opposition parties in India and Pakistan have welcomed the Indo-Pakistan summit. Yet, if the bus diplomacy fails to match its spectacular symbolism with a modicum of substance, it can produce disillusionment and reversals. It is not realistic to expect substantive agreements on longstanding disputes. Diplomatic summits produce processes not treaties. At best they yield broad indications of intent, the guidelines for foreign ministers and secretaries who negotiate the details. One hopes though that in this instance the officials of the two countries will have done some preparatory work to give meaning to this dramatic event. They had the material to work with. An agreement was reached in 1992 to end the absurd military confrontation in the Siachen Glacier area. At the last foreign secretary level meetings, hitches were introduced to prevent a final agreement. These could be ironed out. Similarly, broad agreements exist on the Wullar Barrage and Sir Creek salient. Agreement on these would signal a determination by both sides to set aside petty details for the sake of achieving a broad peace. A great reservoir for peace lies in the historical and cultural affinities between the people of India and Pakistan. The prime ministers' meeting will gain in significance to the extent that they decide to feed this reservoir. Travel between the two countries needs to be made easier, and the unnecessary humiliations of police reporting ought to be spared the travellers. An agreement on reopening the Indian and Pakistani consulates in Bombay and Karachi, and on resuming the rail link through Rajasthan will bring much relief to millions of people. Above all, meaningful beginnings must be made toward enlarging commerce and cultural exchanges between the two countries. The prime ministers are not likely to announce the specifics of such agreements. But they can draw the outlines of the map they wish the technicians and diplomats to fill out. The question of Kashmir will of course stand as the great obstacle to a final peace between India and Pakistan. It is nearly impossible for Messrs. Nawaz Sharif and Atal Behari Vajpayee to reach an agreement over this thorny dispute. What they can do, however, is to appreciate each other's perspectives, try to link those with Kashmiri aspirations, and begin the process of searching for the alternatives that lie between fixed, by now outdated, positions. But what will matter most is the spirit with which they lay the foundations of future Indo-Pakistan relations. In a front page article, India's daily The Hindu quotes Sardar Jafri's lines: Tum aao gulshan-i-Lahore se chaman bardosh, Ham aayen subh-i-Banaras ki roshni laykar: Phir uskay baad yeh poochcheyn key kon dushman hai! (You come wearing the fragrance of Lahore, We bring you the warmth of the morning in Banaras: And then let's ask "who is the enemy!") *Suddenly the twain meet again by A.B.S. Jafri (From Dawn 2/19/99) When the young people of ancient Greece would meet Socrates in the Athens market-place and greet him with a beaming 'good morning,' the old man would cheerfully respond. And then, he would mildly say, "wait a minute, by the way, what is good?" It is indeed good that Indian prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is coming to Pakistan, but how good? Has anyone in Islamabad's cloisters of power, or in New Delhi's, framed this simple question and given it any intelligent thought? Alas we are not famous for thinking. The same question can be addressed to Mr Vajpayee with more or less equally valid reason. The transformation from Mr Vajpayee's election campaigning and subsequent observations on the subject of Pakistan, to his present cheerful readiness to take a bus to Pakistan is certainly welcome. But does it not seem just a little too sudden, hence just a little too good to be accorded instant and enthusiastic three cheers? There was a time when Mr Vajpayee, as foreign minister in the government of the late Mr Morarji Desai, was an advocate of friendship with Pakistan. He used to take pride in claiming that during those days relations between the two neighbours were remarkably free from rancour or tensions. In a brief meeting with this writer in New Delhi in 1981 Mr Vajpayee (then no longer in government) recalled with obvious self-satisfaction his contribution to making Pakistan-lndia equation about the most peaceful ever. It is a different world and a very different South Asian subcontinent now. It is not Mr Morarji Desai's government in New Delhi. It is a Bharatya Janata Party government with the RSS and Shiv Sena. Mr Vajpayee himself is not the same Vajpayee, if one goes by what he and his closest party and cabinet colleagues have been proclaiming. There are streaks of uninhibited distaste for amity with Pakistan within the government in New Delhi. Naturally, one would be uneasily wanting to know if Mr Vajpayee is undertaking this bus yatra with the consent and blessings of Mr L.K. Advani. (Remember Mr L.K. Advani's triumphal Rath Yatra, as a prelude to the better-forgotten Ayodhya affair?) Also ringing in our ears is the recent outpourings of Shiv Sena generalissimo, Mr Bal Thackeray, about contacts with Pakistan. How does Mr Vajpayee's new stance go down with Mr Thackeray who would not countenance contact with Pakistan even for a game of cricket? In recent months the VHP, the World Hindu Parishad (Forum), has become more articulate and also more active. The resentment of the VHP and allied forces against the perceived outrage committed by Christian community is now taking in its sweep the Muslims as well. The Christians and Muslims are being clubbed together as if in some kind of a conspiracy against Hindutva, the Hinduness of India. These are only fragments picked at random just to remind ourselves of the new dimension to the reality of the growing sentiment in official India. This being the mounting mood (so it appears to observers in this country) around Mr Vajpayee, his inclination to visit Pakistan almost as a self-invited guest leaves well meaning Pakistanis with an indefinable feeling that is at once a mixture of delight and doubt. Who do we have to thank for this change in New Delhi? Mr Vajpayee has a well deserved reputation for being an amiable gentlemen. Still one question asks for an answer: has Washington been able to convince, cajole or coerce Mr Vajpayee into this conciliatory inclination? One must address similar inquiry to Mr Nawaz Sharif. Mr Strobe Talbott has been around only weeks ago. It is tempting to put two and two together in such a tantalizing scenario. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, too, is friendly by temperament. He has a solid political base. However, his massive mandate, strong no doubt, carries some inherent faults in its geology. Mr Sharif will probably deny it, but there is no doubt that he has cheerfully watched, if not actually engineered, the rise of militancy on the fanatic right in the country. There is no denying that he and his government have been responsible for this development which the liberal citizens in this country find disquieting. This hyperactive and volatile part of his constituency (keep Malakand in mind) is unlikely to smile on any move to make for normal neighbourly relations with India. Also hard to deny is the existence of the element that can only be defined as ultra-nationalist lobby in Punjab on which, too, Mr Sharif depends for much significant political support. This lobby has always prided itself upon its self-proclaimed right to monopoly of Pakistani patriotism. One can only wonder how far Mr Sharif's genius for political salesmanship will be able to persuade this lobby to buy his new-found fancy for good relations with India? There are those who hold it as a matter of unquestionable faith that any ingratiating attitude towards India would be a shameless sellout of Kashmir. Mr Nawaz Sharif is not very distant from this perception, is he? Perhaps a much stronger adversary to be encountered by Mr Sharif in his bid to improve relations with India is his constituency in the trading community. First and foremost, the opponents of promoting above-board trade with India are to be found among the patrons of informal (smuggling) trading. No confirmed statistics are available because nobody is interested in establishing the truth about this monumental fraud upon the nation's economy. The same can be said with, if anything, stronger force about the self-appointed guardians of Pakistan's cultural chastity. Have we not heard the wailing about "cultural invasion of India?" A "counter-invasion" is mounted by the makers of sub-standard feature films in Pakistan. They are afraid of competition from what is mostly unrelieved trash produced by India's 'Bollywood.' Who does not know that pirated videotapes of trashy Indian films are smuggled into Pakistan even before they are released in India? The guardians of our cultural sanctity do not bother about this trade - this self-invited invasion on our cultural (and ideological?) frontiers. Shades of the late dictator Gen Ziaul Haq here? Let it be understood quite clearly that it takes two to smuggle under cover, quite as it takes two to trade in the open. If smuggling flourishes, as it so openly does, there must be deeply entrenched vested interests in this illicit trade on the Indian side, too. Patrons of shady business are not Pakistan's exclusive possession. Has Mr Vajpayee obtained the consent of the powerful forces of obscurantism and bigotry, as well as vested interests of an equally dubious character, on his side? The same question may be addressed to Mr Nawaz Sharif whose propensity to be carried away by slogans is no secret. In the context of our two neighbouring countries it is important for governments to take their respective establishments along, if they wish to move at all. Before embarking on any initiatives designed to stage a departure from the corrosive status quo, the nod from the establishment has come to be a prerequisite. The status quo is the doctrine of the inevitability of ineradicable hostility. Both governments must have (at least tacitly) the blessings of what the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto used to call the "bastions of power." It would be idle for the Indians to pretend that this is something peculiar to Pakistan. Perhaps it takes a bit of moral courage to face the unalterable and undeniable facts and the questions they pose. If that be so, when are we going to have that kind of good sense to be honest to ourselves? The trouble lies within ourselves, not in the stars of this sad subcontinent. Inaugurating the UNESCO, the late prime minister Clement Attlee of the United Kingdom said that wars start in the minds of men. It is only sensible to start the process of peace in the minds of the tormented people of this subcontinent. The demon of intolerance that finally led to the vivisection of the subcontinent has to be vanquished and laid to rest. To insist that this demon resides only on the other side is to be indelicate, if not downright stupid With our respective records in front of our eyes, we should consider ourselves as having forfeited any claim to strike postures of self-righteousness. Both of us stand in front of the world (and also in our own conscience) as guilty of having committed excesses against good manners that have heaped nothing but shame and comprehensive ruin upon ourselves. The injury to our people is in addition to the shame. It is time we admitted our terrible errors and decided to sincerely and adequately atone for them. It is about time we grew up. The fear that this projected meeting of the prime ministers of Pakistan and India - no doubt welcome - may have been arranged without the requisite preparation for it should be causing some concern to thoughtful citizens on both sides. It is better not to have any meeting at all than to have one without a reliable promise of some progress in the appropriate direction. Failed meetings at the top end up as costly misadventures, aggravating what was already an unlovely situation. Even so, perhaps it is better to wish for a sweet dream than not to dream at all. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, the prime minister of India, is most warmly welcome. He has put himself on trial. This is gracious and brave of him. Who would not wish him the very best? *A bus to nowhere by Ayaz Amir (From Dawn 2/20/99) FOR aficionados of the sub-continental scene, a tribe in which most hacks must include themselves, it is a familiar routine. The arrival of a fresh face in Islamabad or New Delhi usually brings with it excited talk of doing away with the baleful legacy of the past and striding boldly, in the manner of heroes, towards a new era of friendship between the modern incarnations of a rivalry which goes back to a thousand years. Amidst an onrush of hope and much sentiment and romance - and who is there who will deny the people of the subcontinent their prowess in the emotional field? - the stage is made ready for another diplomatic encounter. When it takes place it is usually no different from similar encounters spread over the last 50 years. Romanticism quickly dissolves into bitterness and a sense of dismay. Only the names of the cast change: Liaquat Ali and Nehru, Ayub Khan and Nehru, Bhutto and Swaran Singh, Bhutto and Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi, Nawaz Sharif and Inder Kumar Gujral, and now Nawaz Sharif and Atal Behari Vajpayee. Despite sentiment and occasional quotations from Ghalib, the quintessential poet of the Urdu-speaking world, the reality remains doggedly the same. Benazir Bhutto, naive as in most things except when it came to feathering her already warm nest, set great store by what she thought would be a personal relationship with Rajiv Gandhi. She went over the top in greeting Rajiv when he visited Pakistan soon after her coming to power. While this got her into trouble at home since she was accused, by Nawaz Sharif among others, of being soft on India, it brought her nothing from the Indian prime minister who, as was only to be expected, conceded nothing in return. Nawaz Sharif put great store by Inder Kumar Gujral. The hopes that this raised also came to nothing with Pakistan getting another lesson in the dictum that in the real world personal affability and charm do not automatically translate into great diplomatic wonders. Once again, almost as if to prove that men learn little from experience, there is hope in the air with Vajpayee's bus journey to Lahore generating a great deal of excitement. Among the Pakistani right wing which always suspects the worst when it comes to India, there is dark talk of the stage being set by the Americans (who else?) for another Camp David accord, this time between Pakistan and India. While everyone in Pakistan may not subscribe to such alarmist views, Nawaz Sharif has done his bit to fan the flames of excitement by pleading for boldness and saying that for progress to be made both countries should go beyond their 'stated positions'. If there is the slightest chance of these hopes being realized, of Pakistan and India getting down to serious negotiations instead of posturing and marking time, then every person who has the collective interests of the sub-continent at heart will wish every success to the present efforts. But the matching danger should also be kept in mind. If Vajpayee's visit turns out to be a tinselly affair, all pomp and sentiment and no substance, the optimism will quickly sour and turn to disillusionment. One step forward followed by two steps back. What then the chances of progress? Does the breeze now blowing between the two capitals hold the promise of a real spring or will this spring turn out to be as false and cruel as so many others before it? To answer this question it helps to bear in mind one unpleasant circumstance: it is not India which is caught on the horns of a dilemma but Pakistan. For the sake of improved relations, India has to make no great adjustment towards Pakistan. It is Pakistan which, if it desires good relations with India, must reconcile itself to the bitter reality that barring an unforeseen cataclysm India is not going to loosen its grip on Kashmir. What Pakistan has been unable to win on the battle-field it cannot win on the negotiating table. Of course given the ingenuity of diplomats Kashmir can be discussed in a roundabout way in some 'working group' or the other, an outcome which can then be hailed by us as a great diplomatic triumph. But mere talking means nothing especially when it should be clear even to the plainest intelligence that nothing we say, no arguments plucked from the heavens, no effort of Strobe Talbott's, will change the present geography of Kashmir. This means that in the circumstances there can be no diplomatic solution to the Kashmir dispute. Unless of course we go Arafat's way and sell our honour for a few pieces of silver by betraying the Kashmiri people and resiling from the position we have held on Kashmir for the last 50 years. What then, if we put a value on sub-continental detente, are we to do? If there is no diplomatic solution to the Kashmir dispute, the stark alternative we are left with is to joylessly embrace the Indian position. What India expects of us is that apart from perfunctory references to Kashmir we should leave this matter aside, there to await the effects of apathy and indifference which are the functions of time, and strive for improvement in other fields: trade, cultural exchanges, greater flow of information, more people-to-people contacts, etc. Every bus journey, every train or steamer service, every visit of parliamentarians, any exchange of cultural or other goods, are steps which vindicate India's position. They bring Pakistan no nearer to Kashmir. If possession be nine-tenths of the law, India possesses most of Kashmir while we do not. There is no way we can avoid the consequences of this logic. There are people in Pakistan who passionately believe that Kashmir can be liberated through jehad and the force of arms. Let this belief not be treated with ridicule. The bravery witnessed and the sacrifices rendered in the course of the uprising which has been raging in the Kashmir Valley for the last eight or nine years deserve our highest respect. In a country where there is very little commitment to noble or heroic ideals, there are young men, may their names always be honoured, who have laid down their lives for the cause of Kashmir. But even in the most heroic struggles a time comes to draw up a balance-sheet of gains and losses. Just as there is no diplomatic solution to the Kashmir dispute, there is no military solution to it either. The peaceniks and the hawks are thus both wrong. There is, however, a vital difference between the two camps. While those engaged in the armed struggle believe in their cause, the diplomatists know all too well that for all their obsession with working groups and subtle definitions, they are trying to wrestle with the wind. If they really believe the claptrap of peace, that after the nuclear tests carried out by Pakistan and India outside powers will come to Pakistan's assistance and pressure India for a solution of the Kashmir dispute, their naivete is to be pitied. Should this mean that we give up on every attempt to improve relations with India? Of course not. While there are serious enough problems dividing us, it is in our common interest, all the more so when both countries have marched out of the nuclear closet, to bring a measure of stability to our relationship if for nothing else than to prevent accidents from happening. We ought to be able to do all this and much more. But what must be avoided at all costs is empty fanfare and sterile symbolism for when we fall for these gambits we are playing the Indian game. We are getting involved in trivia while deluding ourselves into the belief that by generating goodwill (a dangerously deceptive phrase) a path is being cleared through the woods for tackling substantive issues. This is why the Vajpayee visit and the way it is being handled is not to our advantage. India has every reason to gloat over it. But what is there in it for us? *Bus to Pakistan: A blueprint for a change by M.P. Bhandara (From Dawn 2/20/99) It is possible that a historic turning point in Indo-Pakistan relations might be in the making. It may appear somewhat foolhardy to make so sweeping a statement, but a recent visit to India suggests that the doves - I mean the wide band of moderate opinion - is in the ascendant. The unfolding political scenario in India is intriguing. The structural weakness of the right-wing RSS-oriented BJP government was self-evident from day one. The government was forced to trim its sails to the frenzied winds of its erratic coalition partners. How long this government will last is a matter of some speculation. It is a simplification to think that India's nuclear testing of last May was a BJP aberration. As in Pakistan, there is a broad consensus among political parties on nuclear policy. India's nuclear aims, ambitions and goals are quite different from those of Pakistan. Indian nuclear policy is not Pakistan specific; whereas Pakistan's is. The BJP government having inherited a nuclear establishment and a nuclear policy - with which it was in broad agreement - decided to take the plunge last May; no doubt a favourable domestic political fallout was generated; but this benefit proved too temporary for domestic political encashment. Pakistan's tit-for-tat explosions did send the right message to the Indian right-wing chauvinists. Mr L.K. Advani who just before our blasts was aggressive and talking down to Pakistan, was not heard much of after our blasts. Pakistan's nuclear explosions have cast serious doubts in India on the validity of coming out of the nuclear closet. Besides, something did go wrong with one of the Indian nuclear explosions. The political fallout eight months after the event is increasingly negative. The BJP government is in the process of being out-flanked. For the RSS and the Shiv Sena extremists, it is too soft; the Congress is in no hurry to acquire power on a coalition basis. But, to retain power is the 'sine qua non' of the subcontinent politics. No sacrifice or 'volte face' is deemed demeaning if so 'honourable' an end can be achieved. The curious twist in the mosaic of ongoing events - and this may gladden hearts in Pakistan - is that the 12 per cent Muslim electorate in India is being wooed, cuddled and courted by all the major political parties. It is the swinging vote - the joker in the pack! The Indian newspapers were full of the high and mighty in New Delhi falling over one another in giving Iftar parties. At an Iftar hosted by Mr Vajpayee, a prominent Maulvi did not turn up and this was the subject of many a press column. The BJP leadership today might have wished that Ayodhya had never happened. The Hitlerite Shiv Sena is a lost cause in Maharashtra and its maverick leader Mr Bal Raj Thackeray, a former newspaper cartoonist, the butt of lampoons and pen-pricks. But no leopard changes its spots. In many respects, the Hindu religious fanatic is worse than his contemporary in Pakistan. If the Muslims are, for the time being, holy cows, the poor Christians, who constitute about 1.5 per cent of the population are the sitting ducks. The recent fundamentalist attacks on so weak a minority earned the disgust and revulsion of the world. Just as the loyalty of the Pakistani Hindu is a bit suspect so is the case in India. The Indian Muslim is generally supposed to be a Pakistani agent under his skin. Therefore, in part the sudden reckoning that the way to the heart of the Indian Muslim is a bus journey to Pakistan is a two-faced symbolic gesture directed for internal consumption as well as for Pakistan. In sum, the objective conditions are favourable in India for flexibility in reaching a settlement with Pakistan on non-Kashmir related issues such as Siachen, Sir Creek and Wooler barrage, without prejudice to the stand of either side on Kashmir. Of these issues, without doubt, the most urgent and perhaps the easiest to resolve is Siachen. Since this problem erupted, between four to six billion dollars have been spent on defending a bit of icy rock by both sides. Never in history has so much been spent on so little. Mr Vajpayee should summon the courage to implement an agreement reached almost a decade back. An honourable settlement of Siachen by itself will bring about a sea change in mental attitudes. Sanity will be seen to have triumphed. Are the above conditions for a limited agreement favourable in Pakistan? The answer of officialdom, which includes our state within the state i.e. the premier intelligence agency, is no; but the trend of public opinion and in particular the youth, but excluding the devoted readers of a certain Urdu newspaper, is to the contrary. People are tiring of a state of permanent confrontation. Millions of people yearn to visit their 'roots' in the subcontinent. It is a desire as natural as, say, motherlove; but, the ordinary citizen is treated as a criminal in both countries. Just as the BJP government of Mr Vajpayee, once in power, has been forced to take into consideration Indian Muslim opinion, so will the right-wing government of Nawaz Sharif be compelled to recognize the emerging political reality. A ground for optimism also arises from the fact that the credentials of extremists in power to reach agreements with opponents is far better than those of moderates in power. It took a dyed-in-the-wool right-winger such as Richard Nixon to reach an agreement with Mao Zedong. In the context of Siachen, it does well to remember that the moderate Rajiv Gandhi lost his nerve in 1989 simply because his high commissioner in Pakistan, S.K. Singh, in endorsing the friendly and amiable remarks of Foreign Secretary Humayun Khan, at Islamabad airport, persuaded Rajiv Gandhi to back out of the agreement, for fear of right-wing reaction. In essence what is involved in Indo-Pakistan relationships is 'face.' No side can be perceived to be yielding one centimetre to the other. For the reactionaries of either side, the least movement towards an agreement is a sell-out of national interest. In one major respect, Pakistan's Kashmir policy needs serious review. Our present policy is that a Kashmir settlement or at least a serious movement in this direction must precede the normalization of relationships. Consequently, relations have been almost frozen for half a century. The time has come to question the premise of unremitting hostility. In the process of hostility we lost East Pakistan without gaining Kashmir. By freezing trade, has it stopped inflow of Indian goods? Who stands to gain by this? Is our faith in our cultural beliefs so shaky that it cannot withstand competition from India? How sure are we that a policy of infiltration and confrontation in Kashmir is not alienating Kashmiris? Besides, the saboteur infiltration game can also be played by India; so, how is this likely to help either country? Hostility and infiltration has not helped project Pakistan in any favourable light abroad. It has sullied the Kashmir cause. In confronting India, we start in a no-win framework. The Indian economy is many times larger than ours; as one index among many, the Indian navy is about eleven times our size! As a matter of common sense, is it wise for a welter-weight boxer to take on a heavy-weight? The former is of course in a no-win situation. It is said that our nuclear bomb had wiped out the Indian military advantage. Have we really thought through the consequences of this fantastic notion? Since unremitting hostility has paid no great dividend, why not give the olive branch a chance? Pakistan's principal thrust should be geared to getting the bulk of the Indian army out of the valley of Kashmir. This can only happen if the 'holy' mercenaries are denied access by Pakistan. A democratic and autonomous Kashmir is bound to rediscover its natural trade, cultural and ethnic linkages with the parts adjoining Pakistan. I repeat what I have said before - the Kashmir knot is not as intractable as Palestine. The resolution of lesser disputes will create the ambience for tackling larger issues. One concrete suggestion in this regard is that each prime minister continue the one-to-one dialogue not through their respective foreign offices which have a frozen and sterile approach but through a confidential emissary i.e. a person of the highest stature who is neither a bureaucrat nor an active politician and enjoys the complete confidence and respect on all sides. Finally, I must report to my readers seeing a movie which moved me in a way which very few films have. This was Pamela Rook's rendition of Khushwant Singh's "Train to Pakistan." This bit of celluloid is in every way worthy of the great novel. The horrors of partition turned many hearts to stone. But here is a love epic sensitively rendered on the screen by a young director, Amor vincit omnia. Love can pulverise stones to dust and permit a few flowers to grow in the wilderness of hatred. There are too many stony hearts on both sides of the great divide, let's hope the 'Bus to Pakistan' is a spiritual successor to the 'Train to Pakistan'. I suggest this movie be shown to the assembled worthies on February 20 at Governor's House, Lahore. It may have the salutary effect of shrinking outsize chauvinistic egos, by just a bit! *Retired Pak army officials reject response to
India's nuclear test, a report by C K Arora on a document prepared by Pakistani
security analyst Nazir Kamal (From Rediff on the NeT 2/16/99)
Among civilians, the strongest pressure came from the Jamaat-i-Islami. The report quotes its chief Qazi Hussain as saying, "If the government fails to (conduct tests) under any American pressure, it will remain a surrender of our sovereignty and enslaving the country to the United States, and India's hegemonic designs will receive a boost in the region." Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto also supported an early response, claiming India may risk a war with Pakistan over Kashmir, as failure to test would imply that Pakistan did not possess a credible nuclear deterrent. Support for testing was not unanimous among the senior retired military officers though. For example, General (Retired) Mirza Aslam Beg advocated conducting nuclear tests at an appropriate time, as there was no need for haste because Pakistan already possessed a "credible nuclear deterrent". Retired Lt General Javed Nasir, former chief of intelligence, lamented the jubilation shown by Indians and Pakistanis after their respective nuclear tests, as he considered nuclear rivalry to be dangerous for regional security. Another opponent of testing was Air Marshal (retd) Rashid Shaikh, who argued that sanctions would hurt the country at a time when economic revival should have been a higher priority. In the situation preceding the Pakistani tests, the report points out, the hard-liners far outweighed the pacifists but the situation also galvanised the latter to articulate their position more forcefully than at any other time in the past. Thus, a coalition of regional political parties and some human rights organisations urged the government to unilaterally renounce nuclear weapons and resist pressure from ''across the political and religious spectrum in Pakistan (who) are clamouring for giving a fitting reply to India." Judging from the columns and letters in newspapers, the doves are not only numerous but a majority of them also write on the question of Pakistan's options dispassionately and knowledgeably, the report said, quoting analyst Eqbal Ahmad, who writes for the daily, Dawn. Those opposed to testing included some leading political analysts. One of them (Anwar Ahmad) said the government should have waited out the Indian government's euphoria and "let the fallout of its folly prove its undoing". Although a big majority favoured immediate testing a bigger welcomed the tests. Most opinion-makers, both civilian and military, had similar views on the border issue of nuclearisation. Thus, a coalition of regional political parties and some human rights organisations urged the government to unilaterally renounce nuclear weapons and resist pressure from "across the political and religious spectrum in Pakistan [who] are clamouring for giving a fitting reply to India." The report says the post-test euphoria died down quickly, aided by the country's grim economic situation, rendered more precarious by international sanctions. The grimness of the situation became evident when the government declared a national emergency and suspended the constitution immediately after the nuclear tests while it continued to face difficulty in tackling the economic crisis and other national problems. While some public figures and opinion-makers urged the government to directly assist the militancy in Kashmir, even at the risk of igniting another war with India, there was little evidence of support for an active programme of nuclearisation in non-fundamentalist circles. Air Marshal (retired) Rashid Shaikh, who had opposed a precipitous response to the Indian test, regarded nuclear deterrence as recipe for ''collective suicide'' and urged that Pakistan should instead rely almost wholly on conventional forces for its security against India. Equally scathing were the comments of General Javed Nasir: "To say the least, Indians and Pakistanis do not have the foggiest idea as to what can happen to them and to their generations if a nuclear conflict is initiated even accidentally." Two other former military officers, Air Marshal Asghar Khan and Lt General Talat Masood, subsequently joined in by urging an end to nuclear competition, saying that a nuclear build-up would increase defence spending, taking more scarce resources away from social and economic development. They also said that the use of nuclear weapons for deterrence would be suicidal. Most leading civilian commentators also advocated a policy of restraint. One of them (Afzal Mahmood) described nuclear stabilisation to be a paramount regional need and urged measures to avert a conventional conflict, as that the most likely path to a nuclear escalation. The only prominent advocate of nuclearisation, it seems, was a leading nuclear scientist, Dr Mobarik Mand, who said that Pakistan might need some 60 to 70 nuclear bombs for deterrence with India. *'No Muslim other than Jinnah worked for Pakistan' (From Rediff on the NeT 2/2/99) West Punjab Education Minister Brigadier (retd) Zulfikar Ahmed Dhillon has challenged the history taught in Pakistan's schools and colleges, arguing that no Muslim shed even a drop of blood in the struggle against the British for the creation of the country. Brig Dhillon made the statement during his presidential address in Lahore at a recent meeting of an organization comprising those who participated in the movement for Pakistan. "We say we fought for the creation of Pakistan, but I say only one person, Quaid-e-Azam (Mohammad Ali Jinnah), worked for it... No Muslim shed a drop of his blood for this," he said. "We became Muslims just because of our hatred for Hindus," he told his enraged listeners. This is the first observation of its kind at a time when frenzied movements are in progress for making the Shariat the supreme law in Pakistan. The Urdu daily Jang, which reported the incident, also carried an article the next day on the late Pathan leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan's sacrifices for India's independence along with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Scholars in Pakistan have long been aghast at what is being taught in schools and colleges in the name of history. A few years ago, a book entitled The Murder of History by K K Aziz said, "In Pakistani schools and colleges, what is being taught as history is really national mythology, and the subjects of social studies and Pakistan studies are nothing but vehicles of political indoctrination." * January 28, Islamabad, Pakistan: Microsoft will open an office in Pakistan, according to Bahram Mohazzebi, a company executive. "Pakistan is a market with huge technology potential and Microsoft is ready to help in realizing that potential," he said, after meeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief. * January 28, Pune, Maharashtra, India: Cognizant Technology, a leading US applications outsourcer that provides software development and maintenance services, has inaugurated its latest software development center here. * January 29, , India: Vishwa Bharati awarded the Desikottama to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her role in forging friendly relations among the countries in the Indian sub-continent and her "tireless efforts in upholding democratic values and women's rights." *January 29, North West Frontier Province , Pakistan: The Taliban Tehrik has announced a house- house search in the tribal areas of the North West Frontier Province to destroy radios, tv sets, drugs and other items. * January 29, Hyderabad, AP, India: Cornell University proposes to start an agribusiness management master and professional studies program for the first time outside that country, through distance learning and onsite instructions by using the world-class facilities available in Hyderabad. Hyderabad has also been selected to be home to the prestigious Indian School of Business. * February 3, Tamil Nadu, India: Tamilnet 99, an international conference and seminar on Tamil in information technology, is being organized by the Tamil Nadu government in Madras on February 7 and 8. It would standardize a Tamil keyboard and adopt a common coding standard in the language. "Our ultimate objective is that a common man living in Kanyakumari should be able to chat not only with a Tamil living in Kashmir but also in California while using the Internet," Karunanidhi says. * February 3, Gangtok, Sikkim, India: Due to the expansion plan undertaken by the Department of Telecommunications, the remote Himalayan state of Sikkim is all set to usher in the state-of-the-art communication technology. Talking to reporters, Telecom District Manager (Sikkim Circle) Mahesh Kumar Seth said this has become possible due to a record growth of almost 200 per cent in telecommunication services in this eastern Himalayan state during the last one year. All telephone exchanges in the state will become digital by March 2000. The network will be upgraded to accommodate 'integrated services digital network', or ISDN, to provide facilities like videophotophone, computer networking and television besides the Internet connections, he explained. * February 10, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India: A school of information technology and management is being set up here with an investment of Rs 300 million, Kerala Industries Minister Suseela Gopalan has told the state assembly. * February 13, Pune, Maharashtra, India: A herculean civil engineering feat - involving five big bridges, 25 small bridges, 17 viaducts, 26 underpasses, 20 overpasses, two railway bridges, 31 pedestrian crossings, four entry-exit points and 81 culverts - is steadily taking shape between Pune and Bombay. The project is for India's first access-controlled expressway of international standards. Work on the 94-km-long expressway is progressing along expected lines and would be thrown open to vehicular traffic on January 26, 2000. It is expected to cut down the travel time between Pune and Bombay to 150 minutes. ''You will not find it necessary to visit Switzerland,'' beams a MSRDC official. There are plans to adopt the hills and undertake a massive afforestation program that would transform the now arid surroundings into a green wonder, he said. * February 18, Islamabad, Pakistan: A nine-member bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously declared the setting up of military courts for the trial of civilians as unconstitutional and without lawful authority. It set aside all the convictions by the military courts which had not been executed. The court observed it was also not oblivious to the fact that terrorism in Karachi and other parts of Pakistan had not only been taking a toll of thousands of innocent lives but had also affected the economy of the entire country. "It is matter of paramount importance that this menace is eliminated effectively in the shortest possible time, for which a solution be found within the framework of the Constitution." Therefore, the apex court directed that the cases relating to terrorism be entrusted to the special courts already established or might be established under ATA. * February 19, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.:The US government, citing a more flexible Indian policy on nuclear non-proliferation, is dropping its objections to a $ 150 million World Bank loan request by India for a power project in Andhra Pradesh, an administration official has said. The disclosure represents eased sanctions imposed by the US against India after it conducted a series of nuclear tests last May. US eased sanctions which had been applied against Pakistan by lifting its opposition to IMF loans for Pakistan in November. * February 20, New Delhi, India: Sony India Limited's sales from consumer electronics division have exceeded the expectations and turnover in 1998-99 is likely to cross Rs 5 billion. The company is planning to launch new products in 25 categories later this year, according to its managing director Hiromi Matsumoto. A new Sony Digital World Showroom in New Delhi will market digital cameras and editing equipment. Six to seven similar digital outlets will be opened across the country in the next two years, he said. Sony India, a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of Japan, set up manufacturing operations at Dharuhera in Haryana during May 1995. It exports 40,000 color televisions annually. * February 23, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India: Srinagar and its adjoining areas in Jammu and Kashmir were rocked by an earthquake of severe intensity this afternoon. The tremor which was felt around 1227 hours lasted for 20 seconds, forcing people to come out of their houses and offices. According to the police, there was no report of any loss of life and damage to property. * Basant in Pakistan: Basant was celebrated in Pakistan on February 14, according to a report from Lahore by Scott McDonald of Reuters news agency. In recent years, the Basant festival has become one of the biggest cultural events of the Pakistani calendar, especially in Lahore - its traditional center - where tens and thousands gathered for the weekend. Kite-flying is the main-stay of the festival. Their wrists attached to their kites people engage in aerial battles with their neighbors in an attempt to knock the opponents's kites out of the sky by snarling or cutting their lines. To increase their chances of success people coat the string with a ground glass and glue mixture. Some people even use metal wire instead of string, which infuriates the state electric company WAPDA, since metal wires tend to short-circuit or cut power lines. Knocking out the competitor's kite is accompanied with shouts of "bo kata" (it's cut), accompanied by bugles, pipes, and drums. Sometimes, they shoot guns in the air, which the police frowns upon. Some people even use AK47 assault rifles with tracer bullets to make patterns in the night sky. This year the police conducted more than 400 raids to discourage people from using metal wires and firing guns. "It started as a Hindu festival and continued here after they left during the Partition," said a businessman at a Basant party, which like thousands of others around the city, had started on the night of February 13. People used searchlights to keep track of the kite dogfights. The parties ran through the morning of February 14. HOLIDAYS: March 1 Holi, 17 St. Patrick's Day, 18 Gudi Padava, Ugadi, Cheti Chand, 25 Rama Navmi * February 23, Austin, Tx, USA: HOLI from 3-6:30 p.m., at Barsana Dham. More info from 512- 288-7180. * February 27, Eugene, OR, USA: CLASSICAL MUSIC OF NORTH INDIA by Kartik Seshadri on Sitar and Arup Chatterjee on tabla, a presentation of the University of Oregon School of Music at 8:00 p.m., at its Beall Concert Hall, at 961 E 18th Ave. Tickets at $10 available at the door. More info from 541-346-2852 or 541-485-8466. * February 27, Hayward, CA, USA: SAUJANYA CHI AISI TAISI, a Marathi comedy drama at 2:45 p.m., at California State University Auditorium. More info from 408-243-9110. * Ferbruary 28, Berkeley, CA, USA: ON NAMAH SIVAYA. an Odissi dance drama by Jyoti Rout and the Nupur Dance Company at 3 and 6:30 p.m., at Live Oak Theater. Tickets $12 & $10 in advance and $15 and $12 at box office. More info from 415-974-4313. * February 28, USA: HOLI CELEBRATIONS Freemont, CA, after Aarti, at
Hindu Temple parking lot. More info from 510-659-0655
* February 28,Glendora, CA, USA: INTERCOLLEGIATE COMPETITION of bhangra, classical, film, folk, and hip hop dancing 4-8 p.m. at Citrus College. More info from 619-642-2019. * February 28-March 9, New Delhi, India: BREATH-TAKING SHOTS of wildlife photographs organized by the Natural History Museum, London, British Gas and the BBC Wildlife Magazine from 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the National Museum of Natural History, Barakhamba Road. More info from 011-3710576, 3314849. * March 6-12, Khajuraho, MP, India: THE KHAJURAHO DANCE FESTIVAL, organized by Madhya Pradesh Tourism, presents Kathak by Dr Malabika Mitra and Odissi by Madhavi Mudgal on March 6, Kuchipudi by Raja Reddy and Radha Reddy and Odissi performance by Aruna Mohanty.on on March 7, Mohiniattam by Bharati Shivaji. Manipuri onMarch 8, Bharatnatyam by Malavika Sarukkai and Kuchipudi performance by Alekhya on March 9, Bharatnatyam by Leela Samson. And Kathak by Suchitra S Harmalkar on March 10, Manipuri by Rajkumar Singhajit Singh and Charu Sija Mathur and Bharatnatyam Radhika Ganju on March 11, and a Ballet by Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra on March 12. The performances every evening start at 7:00 p.m. Tickets at Rs 100 and up at the MP Tourism office, Jankar hotel, Khajuraho. More info from 07686-2063, 2194. * March 7, Whittier, CA., USA: HOLI, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m., at Shree Swaminarayan Mandir. More info from 562-699-9507. * March 5, Portland, OR, USA: WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: THE THREAT, a lectured by Mira Kamdar, Senior Fellow, World Policy Institute, and offered by World Affairs Council at 11:30 a.m. at Portland State University School of Business Auditorium. More info from staff@wac-oregon.org. * March 5 - 7, New York, NY, USA: PASHMINA AND KASHMIR FASHION AND HOME ACCESSORIES. An Asia Society Store event presenting extraordinary collection of sumptuous stoles, shawls and throws made of the finest quality pashimina, cashmere and silk blends in a wide range of colors, many featuring exquisite embroidery. More info from 212.288.6400. * Mottled Dawn by Saadat Hasan Manto and published by Penguin (Rs 200). It is a collection of Manto's most powerful pieces on Partition and includes unforgettable stories like Toba Tek Singh, The Return, The Assignment, Colder Than Ice and many more. The stories bring alive the most tragic event in the history of the Indian subcontinent. (Review by Rediff on the NeT) * January 28, Bangalore, Karnatka, India: Air-India has introduced a flight between Bangalore and London and New York via Bombay. * February 14, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India: Northwest KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has introduced a flight between Bombay and Newark via Amsterdam. *Lahore Declaration: Text of documents signed at Lahore (From Dawn, 2/22/99) The prime ministers of the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan:- Sharing a vision of peace and stability between their countries, and of progress and prosperity for their people; Convinced that durable peace and development of harmonious relations and friendly cooperation will serve the vital interests of the peoples of the two countries, enabling them to devote their energies for a better future; Recognizing that the nuclear dimension of the security environment of the two countries adds to their responsibility for avoidance of conflict between the two countries; Committed to the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, and the universally accepted principles of peaceful co-existence; Reiterating the determination of both countries to implementing the Simla Agreement in letter and spirit; Committed to the objectives of universal nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation; Convinced of the importance of mutually agreed confidence building measures for improving the security environment; Recalling their agreement of 23 September, 1998, that an environment of peace and security is in the supreme national interest of both sides and that the resolution of all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, is essential for this purpose; Have agreed that their respective governments:
*Joint statement made by the two Prime Ministers 1. In response to an invitation by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Pakistan from 20-21 February, 1999, on the inaugural run of the Delhi-Lahore bus service. 2. The prime minister of Pakistan received the Indian prime minister at the Wagah border on February 1999. A banquet in honour of the Indian Prime Minister and his delegation was hosted by the Prime Minister of Pakistan at Lahore Fort, on the same evening. Prime Minister Atal Vajpayee visited Minar-i- Pakistan, Mausoleum of Allama Iqbal, Gurudawara Dera Sahib and Samadhi of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh. On 21st February, a civic reception was held in honour of the visiting Prime Minister at the Governor's House. 3. The two leaders held discussions on the entire range of bilateral relations, regional cooperation within SAARC, and issues of international concern. They decided that :
5. Pursuant to the directive given by the two Prime Ministers, the Foreign Secretaries of Pakistan and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 21 February 1999, identifying measures aimed at promoting an environment of peace and security between the two countries. 6. The two Prime Ministers signed the Lahore Declaration embodying their shared vision of peace and stability between their countries and of progress and prosperity for their peoples. 7. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee extended an invitation to Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to visit India on mutually convenient dates. 8. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee thanked Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif for the warm welcome and gracious hospitality extended to him and members of his delegation and for the excellent arrangements made for his visit. The foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan:- Reaffirming the continued commitment of their respective governments to the principles and purposes the UN Charter; Reiterating the determination of both countries to implementing the Simla Agreement in letter and spirit; Guided by the agreement between their Prime Ministers of 23 September 1998 that an environment of peace and security is in the supreme national interest of both sides and that resolution of all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, is essential for this purpose; Pursuant to the directive given by their respective Prime Ministers in Lahore, to adopt measures for promoting a stable environment of peace, and security between the two countries; Have on this day, agreed to the following:
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