At long last, a firm step forward, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

At long last, a firm step forward

Siddharth Varadarajan

The history of India-Pakistan relations is full of examples of leaders from both countries travelling to distant points on the globe — from Tashkent and New York to Sharm el-Sheikh and Havana — to meet each other only to end up standing still. Meetings held in the subcontinent, on the other hand, have invariably led to breakthroughs, big and small. Think Simla and Lahore, Islamabad and Delhi. Each of these encounters produced conceptual breakthroughs that briefly carried some promise of momentum before being swamped by the forces of inertia, dead habit, treachery or bad faith that are the constants in this cursed relationship.

To the list of promising South Asian summits can now be added the name of Thimphu, where Manmohan Singh and Yusuf Raza Gilani met on Thursday. Defying naysayers within their respective establishments and wider strategic communities, the two Prime Ministers crafted a simple but elegant formula for breaking the current impasse, thereby ensuring that the process of engagement — stuck for several months — now has some chance of moving ahead. The Foreign Secretaries and Foreign Ministers have been tasked with meeting each other to assess the current state of the relationship and identify the reasons for the trust deficit. This is to be the first step in what will eventually lead to a dialogue process aimed at discussing and resolving all outstanding issues and disputes.

http://newageislam.com/at-long-last,-a-firm-step-forward/current-affairs/d/2780

Can The Idea Of India Pass The Thackeray Test?, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Can The Idea Of India Pass The Thackeray Test?

By Siddharth Varadarajan

The Centre and the Maharashtra government must make it clear to the Shiv Sena that they will not be allowed to threaten Shah Rukh Khan with violence.

Now that he has come up with a radical plan for overhauling the country’s capacity to deal with terrorism and other threats to its national security, P. Chidambaram must turn his attention to a problem that none of his predecessors in the Union Home Ministry ever had the courage to deal with: putting goondas in their place.

The task is urgent and brooks no delay. After sparring with Shah Rukh Khan for several days over the Bollywood actor’s statement regretting the absence of Pakistani players in the forthcoming IPL cricket tournament and declaring that Mumbai belongs to all Indians and not just Maharashtrians, the Shiv Sena has now come up with an ultimatum: Mr. Khan must apologise or else the party will not allow his films to be shown in the city, India’s commercial capital.

For me, this contest is as nerve-wracking and stomach churning as any the IPL could throw up. Will this political tournament end with the jailing and prosecution of the Shiv Sena’s leaders and goons who are conspiring to vandalise cinema halls and beat up those who defy this ban? Or will it end with the desolate spectacle of an isolated Shah Rukh being forced to surrender before the ridiculous diktat of the Shiv Sainiks — the way dozens of artists, actors, musicians and politicians have done over the past two decades in the face of the cowardice of policemen, ministers and judges who refused to defend the rule of law?

http://newageislam.com/can-the-idea-of-india-pass-the-thackeray-test?/current-affairs/d/2447

Iran hopes President Obama can deliver on his promises’, Islam and the West, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and the West

Iran hopes President Obama can deliver on his promises’

By Siddharth Varadarajan

MANOUCHEHR MOTTAKI: `We believe that with the continuation of the diplomacy going on now, it is possible to reach an agreement and compromise.' Photo: V.V. Krishnan

The Hindu MANOUCHEHR MOTTAKI: `We believe that with the continuation of the diplomacy going on now, it is possible to reach an agreement and compromise.' Photo: V.V. Krishnan

In an exclusive interview to The Hindu during a two-day visit to Delhi, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki talks about the latest western proposal on the nuclear issue, the reasons behind the recent disclosure of a new enrichment facility at Fardoo and the current state of Indo-Iranian relations. Excerpts.

Iran has yet to respond to the proposal of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (the P5+1) for fuelling the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR). The proposal, which involves Iran shipping out some of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) in return for 20 per cent enriched uranium, seems good for both sides. It shows the P5+1 is dropping its insistence on Iran suspending all enrichment, and also allows Tehran to build confidence with the U.S. and its allies. What will Iran’s stand be?

In order to provide fuel for the TRR, there are three options in front of us. The first is producing the fuel ourselves, i.e. enriching LEU up to 20 per cent; second, purchasing the fuel from other countries as in the past; or third, considering the proposal which has been made by the other side. And we have taken this proposal into consideration and provided an initial response - that we are ready to discuss that option. We have some technical and economical observations here but in principle, this option could be taken into consideration and put on the agenda. We believe that with the continuation of the diplomacy going on now, it is possible to reach an agreement and compromise. Complementary suggestions and proposals are being sent and received by both sides, and by [International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammed] ElBaradei.

http://newageislam.com/iran-hopes-president-obama-can-deliver-on-his-promises%E2%80%99/islam-and-the-west/d/2220

Delaying dialogue with Pakistan will not suit India, Interfaith Dialogue, NewAgeIslam.com

Interfaith Dialogue

Delaying dialogue with Pakistan will not suit India

Missing the wood for the trees

By Siddharth Varadarajan

Posted July 29, 2009

When Manmohan Singh explains his government’s policy towards Pakistan to Parliament on Wednesday, the worst thing he can do is to disown, downplay, retract or resile from the joint statement he issued with Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Sharm-el-Sheikh on July 17.

So irrational and poisonous has the Indian debate on the joint statement become that the government is today under enormous psychological pressure to declare Sharm-el-Sheikh a mistake. The Congress party is tongue-tied and a junior Minister for External Affairs unwisely sought refuge in the irrelevant plea that the text the Prime Minister had agreed to is not a legal document. The implication is clear: Sharm-el-Sheikh may be a sell-out, but the sale deed is not legally binding so don’t worry.

What the opposition’s noise and government’s poor salesmanship have done is reinforce the idea that the current Indian policy of not talking to Pakistan — in place since the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008 — is working fine and that there is no need for any change or adjustment. This is unfortunate. For, in the run up to Sharm-el-Sheikh, Dr. Singh was bold enough to recognise the policy had already yielded the most it could. And that it was time to prepare the ground for change.

http://newageislam.com/delaying-dialogue-with-pakistan-will-not-suit-india/interfaith-dialogue/d/1605

Where silence prevails, justice will not, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Where silence prevails, justice will not

By Siddharth Varadarajan

When young Aman Kachroo was murdered by fellow students in a distant medical college in Himachal Pradesh last month, some politicians tried to appropriate his death to the narrative of forcible displacement that Kashmiri Pandits were subjected to by terrorist violence in the 1990s. Had the valley’s Hindus not felt compelled to flee, they argued, young Aman might well have studied in Srinagar, where the academic and social culture would not have allowed such wanton vi olence to be visited on a student in the name of “ragging.” Despite his death reflecting this invisible dimension of the larger tragedy of exile, however, the Kachroo family asked the politicians to back off. Aman died not because he was a Kashmiri Pandit or because the community was in exile but because of the insensitivity of the educational and law enforcement systems of the country. And his family is determined to make sure the lessons are learned and such tragedies never repeated.

http://newageislam.com/where-silence-prevails,-justice-will-not--/current-affairs/d/1378

Pakistan, India and the flawed legacy of Musharraf, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Pakistan, India and the flawed legacy of Musharraf

By Siddharth Varadarajan

Endorsed by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr. Musharraf when he was president, the fate of this approach is surely under question today. Not only is Islamabad’s commitment to the formula uncertain in the post-Musharraf era, but recent events in J&K — and in particular the valley — have thrown into serious doubt the Indian government’s ability to use this approach towards the resolution of the state’s troubles.

In a sense, the architect of the new approach and the political terrain on which the approach was to be implemented have both disappeared at more or less the same time. The revival of a mass movement in Kashmir in favour of azadi and even accession to Pakistan will certainly reduce whatever appetite still remains within the Pakistani military establishment for the Musharraf formula. And given the heady sprit in the valley, how likely is it that people there will want to settle for soft borders within the territorial status quo when their leaders are once again dangling before them the prospect of self-determination?

http://newageislam.com/pakistan,-india-and-the-flawed-legacy-of-musharraf/current-affairs/d/610