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

People rejected your idea of India for ours, Home Minster tells Hindutva party, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

People rejected your idea of India for ours, Home Minster tells Hindutva party

Express News Service: Wednesday, Dec 09, 2009

New Delhi: Rising above the clamour in the Lok Sabha this evening, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram launched a blistering attack on the BJP and the Sangh Parivar’s “pre-planned, conspiratorial and cold-blooded” destruction of the Babri Masjid.

Breaking off from his written reply to the Liberhan Commission debate, Chidambaram emphatically invoked the idea of India to question the appeal of the Sangh’s temple politics. It had been rejected by the “people of India,” he said, adding that this rejection was an indictment far stronger than Justice Liberhan’s.

To loud applause from the Treasury benches, he said there were “two ideas of India — one the Congress and other secular parties stood for, the other which the Sangh Parivar and its allies stood for.”

“The two ideas of India clashed in 2004,” said Chidambaram. “Forget the Justice Liberhan Commission report... The people of India voted for our idea. They rejected your idea in 2004 and again in 2009. Only our idea of India will prevail — the idea of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose. India will be inclusive and a pluralist nation.”

Chidambaram admitted that the then P V Narasimha Rao government had erred but added that this was “induced by” the lies of the BJP. “Looking back, I may say that the government of the day made a wrong political judgment. Mr Narasimha Rao paid the price for this. The Congress Party paid the price for this wrong political judgment. But it was induced by the lies and false promises of the BJP,” he said.

http://newageislam.com/people-rejected-your-idea-of-india-for-ours,-home-minster-tells-hindutva-party/islamic-world-news/d/2206

Pakistan: The post-election rays of hope are now dimmed and gone, Current affairs, NewAgeIslam.com

Current affairs

Pakistan: The post-election rays of hope are now dimmed and gone

The unalterable law of lifeBy Dr Rubina Saigol

An autocratic ruler gets replaced by a megalomaniac and the latter by another dictator. The more things change, the more they eerily remain the same!Pakistanis were allowed a brief glimpse of sunshine before their jubilation and rejoicing were rudely interrupted by the gathering clouds of yet more uncertainty, political wrangling, power plays and coalition infighting. Once again iron-clad promises were broken as hopes and dreams shattered on the proverbial shores of 'reality', 'pragmatism', 'reconciliation' and realpolitik! The judges were not to be restored as the curtain fell on the obstinate dictator who was to be given 'safe passage', an 'honourable exit' and indemnity. The brief revelling came to an abrupt end as public aspirations were drowned in the cacophony of new sounds about the next president. The looming danger of another catastrophic decision by the motley crew, now drunk with power, became real with frantic moves to install a controversial figure in the presidency. There seems to be little respite for Pakistanis reeling under the blows of high inflation, terrorism and the hard to arrest economic downslide.The quick restoration of the deposed judiciary after Musharraf's much-celebrated exit would have injected some hope into a depressed polity. It would have continued the momentum gained by forcing Musharraf to call it a day.

http://newageislam.com/pakistan--the-post-election-rays-of-hope-are-now-dimmed-and-gone/current-affairs/d/648