The writer is Editor of The Express Tribune
It is a thankless job to talk peace, especially when it comes to India and Pakistan. Attending a conference on the India-Pakistan dialogue in Dubai recently organized by the German organization FES, I could only wonder what are options are and how we have to move ahead. It is far more easier for us to advocate war and confrontation despite all the evidence that suggests that peace will yield dividends for both sides, especially for Pakistan.
In my presentation, I said that war-mongering brings ratings. The Indian media is better than us at this game. There are daily shows on some channels where Pakistan-bashing helps raise revenues. But at what cost.
The Indians ask, given Pakistan’s flirtations with terrorism and militant outfits, why should they even be talking peace with Islamabad. There is an element of looking down on us. Are we even worth the time and effort? More important, can we be trusted.
The Pakistanis respond that if the Indians don’t talk, the consequences could be even more dire. Pakistan wont take the bullying lying down. Also, India needs to talk to a democratic government so as to strengthen democracy in the Pakistan. In the past it has talked to dictators.
We also say that if India tries to show us teeth, we also have teeth to show. The same questions are asked each time. The same answers are articulated. There is point scoring and some honest debate.
In my view as a journalist, possibly the role of the media in all this is more important than we think it is. We need to give both sides of the story, something that we have not been honestly doing. These days Pakistan’s media is less shrill than India’s when it comes to war-mongering, but that has more to do with the fact that we are more focused on the war within our country.
We are talking at an interesting time. There are three significant developments that take place in 2014. The withdrawal of ISAF troops from Afghanistan, elections in Afghanistan and elections in India. Strategists in Pakistan are seeing how we can use all three to our national advantage.
Amidst a feeling that if the BJP comes to power in India and Namo (short form for Narinder Modi) becomes PM, chances are that more honest dialogue will take place. After all, they say, most meaningful steps between the neighbours took place when a BJP government was in power in India and either a dictator or a PML-N government was in place this side. Either that, or things will get only worse.
These are all theories. More work for peace may have been done by the Congress and the PPP. But in many instances it was shot down or hijacked. Yes, such initiatives are also sabotaged in India.
As far as telling the story is concerned, we are now reporting statements. Whether it is the Kashmir issue of the water crisis, there is little in terms of correct and unbiased information. This at a time when the media on both sides is more free than it has ever been. This is a shame.
Coming back to national perceptions, India’s consistent interest in Afghanistan irks us. We believe that it has spread a network on consulates in many towns across Afghanistan. India believes that China has taken over parts of Gilgit and there are now Chinatowns across GB. We think India is stealing our water. India thinks we are lying to them with regards to non-state actors. The accusations and the mistrust is never-ending, based on misinformation and half truths.
We cannot talk peace if we lie to each other. Of course, there are many amongst us who say that confrontation is a better option. These lobbies are not honest either. They are quick to blame and accuse others of selling out to the other side but then go ahead and do exactly that when an opportunity arises. They sell us out more cheaply. Also in this day and age, war cannot be an option for nuclear-armed states.
More important, we are lying to ourselves. That is more worrisome. How can we move ahead if we don’t even know the full story. That is where I feel the media has not lived up to expectations.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2013.
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COMMENTS (30)
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@joy: It's obvious that the state needs to apply force to bring justice to criminals. It becomes, unfortunately, more complicated when you consider the nebulous and amorphous nature of the TTP. It's hard to imagine any success (or to even define success) by going to war against its own people. When would it end? Is there a finite number of Taliban that we can eliminate? Dialogue, too, seems futile with the TTP if we believe their ideological motivation really is as strong as they claim it to be (there is a lot of evidence for this). Another avenue for state force would be the strong use of policing and domestic intelligence to solve, what essentially is, an internal law and order issue. I doubt we have the resources and the will to do this. It's hard to reduce this conundrum to a few words. The outlook seems really, really bleak.
, A. I said that war-mongering brings ratings. The Indian media is better than us at this game.
You mean there are channels in India that preach Ghazwa-e-Pakistan as a religious duty? Strange to say the least.
B. We believe that it has spread a network on consulates in many towns across Afghanistan.We think India is stealing our water.
International Relations are not a matter of 'belief' and 'thought'. Let us test them. Indian Consulates in Afghanistan are publicly listed. Visit the following link. And if you have any further information, Share it.
http://meakabul.nic.in/
We have the Indus Water Treaty in place. And according to the Pakistan Indus Water Commissioner India has not stolen any water at all.In fact,
Jamaat Ali Shah, Pakistan’s Indus Water Commissioner, gave a rare candid interview in April 2008, stating that the Indian water projects currently undertaken do not contravene the provisions of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty.
http://ipripak.org/factfiles/ff127.pdf
Yes, Mr Hafiz Saeed and his friends do make such allegations. But then India does not talk to non-state actors.
C. More important, we are lying to ourselves. That is more worrisome.
Thank God. India and Indian Media are not responsible for certain things.
ETBLOGS1987
ET mods (33d attempt) a everything I have written is factual, directly related to the points addressed in the article and in compliance with your guidelines. Please do not filter based on your personal opinions.
Sir, You said you believe that there are multiple Indian consulates lining Afghanistan and this irks people in Pakistan. Well, consulates must have an address must they not? Had you bothered to google search you would have found that India has exactly 4 consulates in Afghanistan and in the very same cities that Pakistan has in addition to the embassy that both countries have in Kabul. So tell me which media spread these lies that you believe? Is it Indian media?
It is a fact that India did not stop water flow even during wars or during the 90s when the jihadi extremism was at its peak. Your own water commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah was hounded out of the country because he dared to say the truth I.e. India was not stealing Pakistani water. Also India complies with all interim orders of arbitration panels where Pakistan takes it and thus far the final awards have usually gone in India's favor. So who spread the lies about India stealing Pakistan's water? Was it Indian media?
Who started Kargill right after Vajpayee's Lahore trip - was it Indian media?
Who facilitated 26/11 at the height of the out of the box talks - was it Indian media?
Who beheaded Indian soldiers when the civilians had agreed to some trade and visa liberalisation- was it Indian media?
Please answer these questions honestly and you will get answers to why there is no support for peace talks in India. It is not because people want war but because peace talks have not brought us peace.
@Tarun, He did not mean Tamil Nadu!!...he meant the Tamil lands in SriLanka...as per your narrative,everything is fine in India..appears to be a land of angels!!
"Also, India needs to talk to a democratic government so as to strengthen democracy in the Pakistan."Whether this is the writer's view or he is merely reporting it to be that of others, it is impossible to believe that the Pakistan military will ever give the civilian heads the powers to decide on its foreign policy, especially when it concerns its relations with India. It is a joke to say that such talk will strengthen democracy in Pakistan. The fact is that talks will be meaningless because there is no strong democracy in Pakistan. The civilian government can never succeed in its talks, when there is pressure to satisfy the religious bigots on the one hand and "strategic asset-managing" military on the other.
Jat, there is a good chance that neither the Mr Editor nor Mian Nawaz Sharif knew much about Osama Bin Laden living in Abbotabad, Hakimullah Mehsud living near Pak Army’s biggest base in Waziristan and Dr Naseer Haqqani living in Islamabad or any of Indian fugitives living anywhere in Pakistan.
The question for the world at large is should they still 'trust' both Mr Editor and Mian Nawaz Sharif and to what purpose? What will anybody gain from reposing such trust in Mr Editor and Mian Nawaz Sharif.
There argument is that if the world does not trust them then things will be even worse. The real concern is how will things be better for the world by trusting them to deliver anything of substance?
@Jat: Mr Jat , what you refer to is so obviously a RAW conspiracy against Pakistan +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It touches a raw nerve.
In India a terrorist is a terrorist in Pakistaan he is a martyr ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++= May the twain never meet !.
India is a status quo country. That means even if there are no talks, India is ahead by virtue of its stand. Pakistan is a revisionist state. No progress means loss.
Talks and concessions are used by the status quo power as a carrot, withholding talks and threatening action are the stick.
The additional advantage is India is stable, growing and a very large state with overwhelming resources, that Pakistan simply cannot match. This creates an environment where only the Revisionist state suffers by simply trying to catch up or harm the superior power, which is exactly what is happening to Pakistan. Which is what happened to USSR.
@faizaan: Tamil Nadu is the most developed state in India and tamils have been fathers of our missile and nuke programme. orissa houses our missile bases which wont be the case if they were not patriotic. Rajiv Gandhi died trying to clean up the mess in Srilankan tamil lands created by Sinhala government and his mother. As for assam, the people there are most patriotic indians but conflict there is due to illegal migration from bangladesh. get ur facts right before opening ur mouth
Kamal Siddiqui is insightful but incompletely so. The crux of the matter is in the last para -- "we are lying to ourselves." Pakistan needs an honest appraisal of its history, but the narrative has been doctored so much that it is now an impossible task. More poison is being injected into the water issue, forgetting that India did not deny water to Pakistan even during wars and terrorism. Pakistan needs to think why it is the most despised nation on the planet -- not just by India but by Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, U.S, and just about everyone. Even China, Saudi, and Gulf nations look at it with contempt. What have you done to deserve this? If you can answer this question honestly, you might find a way out of the mess.
@ Author: at the outset please accept my congratulations for being invited to attend the conference. Isn't it ironic that such conferences are held in places like Dubai during the autumn/winter months and in Canada or Europe in the summer season. I really am jealous of all you Track-II guys. Coming to some of the points raised in your article,,,let me say this Sir, my views are nor formed by what 24/7 news channels say, but what has been written about Pakistan over the years ( not by Indians of course). Even yesterdays economist had something to say about the killing of TTP chief and the reaction among Pakistani leaders to that. Sir, I am an ordinary citizen of India and I just want to know why does your country play host to all the bad guys, why is Pakistan's name associated with violent jehad...could you please give me an honest answer
@Kamal Siddiqi: Welcome to the wonderful world of trolling. What I think is great is that you managed to further the evidence in support of your theory that the media has on an average Indian's/Pakistani's perspective of one another. The truth is, even those who claim not to be influenced by the media are unknowingly influenced by the media ... how else do you get your information to form an opinion? In my experience, you cannot form a proper, well-informed opinion by listening to one side of the argument. That is an inalienable fact! I urge the participants of this discussion to fully research their argument before publishing it, try to understand why India or Pakistan feels the way it does - empathise and be honest. Only then can this debate move forward.
Its Narendra Modi Not Narinder Modi
Pakistan falsely believes that others(India, USA, Afghanistan) are responsible for its problems, not its own policies and actions. The same has been propagated by the Media, complicating the countries problems, rather than solving any. Pakistan has too many problems which it alone can solve and needs to talk to no other country. India has its own problems which they have correctly identified, and need to work on. They do not need the assistance of any Foreign Power, to work on any of them either. There is nothing India can do to help Pakistan with its problems of insecurity, there is nothing Pakistan has to offer either. In this context there is nothing to talk about, each seeing a different future for themselves. Both countries need to solve their own problems without interfering or advising each other. Welfare of their own people should be the priority of both countries.
@Babloo Why is it that Pakistan state and its journalists , always refer to Pakistan’s nucler powers when discussing tensions with India ??
Nuclear weapons, though a 70 year old technology, is Pakistan's single major achievement, amid a sea of failures, in the 60 years of its existence. If they do not talk about it, what else will they talk about?
People such as this writer completely underestimate the ever-simmering anger emanating from the Mumbai attacks which most Indians have towards Pakistan. Pakistanis on the other hand think that by not mentioning the M-word, feigning helplessness or espousing one of their many conspiracy theories that all would be hunky dory.
Not so. I am one of those Indians who was ambivalent about Pakistan for most of my life. Regarding Jammu & Kashmir, I used to chalk it down to the ineptitude of Nehru and the Congress party. The only time I heard about Pakistan being mentioned with vehemence was when I went to Delhi in the 90s and coincidentally often sat down with survivors from the partition. In short, you can say that for most of my life I was a person who harbored no ill feelings towards Pakistan.
All that has changed with the Mumbai attacks. To have 10 jihadis trained by an ex-Major, LeJ & JuD rain down bullets on innocent civilians while being given direction by their handlers in Pakistan is something neither I nor most Indians can easily forget. I was glued to the TV for all of those 3 days. I have visited ET and Dawn almost every single day since then hoping to see news of the culprits being brought to justice but I have been disappointed every single time.
Because we are "not barbarous" like the west to settle problems between us peacefully?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Blaming media for Indo-Pak problems is totally baseless. What is the history of 24x7 media in India and Pakistan ? Barely 10-15 years I suppose. All major Indo-Pak wars were fought before this media explosion.Problem is in the national genes of two countries and not in the media. All our problems have their origin in the two nation theory .Talks or no talks, Indo-Pak problems will continue forever.
Dear Author, Few points
1) I am educated enough to form my own opinion about Pakistan. India media only reflects my opinion and not the other way round.
2) You write Pakistans flirtations with terrorism. When people are killed and bombs explode regularly then its not flirtation. Its downright deadly. I am told the malls I goto in Delhi and metro I sometimes ride are very high on terrorists lists. How on earth will I define it flirtatious.
3) There is no misinformation and half truths when I see Kasab and his friends in Taj walking casually and executing guests. Plz show me anything remotely similar in Pakistan by Shiv sena or BJP or RSS.
4) India has a precondition that terrorism stops, Pakistan says no it can not stop terrorism but one concession it can give that if India talks then it wont make it more deadly. What kind of peace talk is it. I mean I am all for peace, but I have no Idea what to talk to Pakistan.
A sad commentary on the delusions of Pakistani liberals.
Trust needs to be earned. What has Pakistan done to earn anybody's trust? Whom should India talk to? MNS? India should trust MNS to be able to do or deliver anything?
When there is no trust, the way forward is not to ask for trust. It means doing something that gives trust even when none exists. You should ask yourselves whether Pakistan or MNS has done anything like that?
There was a reason why Rajiv Gandhi went down-These Indians were not distributing roses in Tamil lands…
@faizaan You are roiling in your own lies and delusions, and don't even know what u are talking about.
Why did LTTE kill Rajiv Gandhi? Indian army actions destroyed terrorist LTTE infrastructure and led to its eventual defeat and that's why.
Mr Siddiqi has pointed out what is already a well known truth. Both countries must be 'devastatingly honest' with themselves in their search for peace. Both sides should acknowledge 'THE TRUTHS' not their own truths. We must start with 1947 and go all the way to the present. Jingoism and bravado will not help nor will shouting about nuclear capability. All commentators and politicians say 'war is not an option' yet we had Kargil in 1999 (a year after both countries declared themselves to be nuclear). Why not publish the Hamoodur Rehman report in full as a starter? Followed by a 'Kargil Commission Report'. Until some years ago, water was not even an issue. As populations of Pakistan and India increased, it became an issue because water shortage gave planners second thoughts about the future of populations in Pakistan and northern India. It is also a question of perceptions and not truths alone. India is too pre-occupied with itself to give Pakistan too much attention. Pakistan is too pre-occupied with India to give itself any attention. That is the crux of the problem.
How does India or any other democratic nation deal with a country that adopts "strategic assets" as its state policy to settle "issues"? India and Pakistan are not alone in having issues with each other. China and India, Japan and Russia, USA and Mexico just to name a few have vexing issues between them. Yet they have not adopted a jihadi policy steeped in religious superiority and manufactured facts. This Islamist religio-nationalism justifies all means, no matter how dastardly, to achieve its aims of regional and global dominance. Just look at the charter of LET, speeches of Hafeez Saeed and "responsible" leaders across all parties and institutions in Pakistan. That is what makes talks so dangerous. "Negotiating" with self righteous fanatics is a fools errand. They are never satisfied. With Pakistan it is not just Kashmir - it is Sir creek, Siachen, and now consulates in Afghanistan and water shortage! The list keeps growing. Indians can talk, if they choose to, but they do so at their own peril.
The hard feelings and mutual hatred between the two countries are now very deep rooted. The possibility of a civilized conversation or a give-and-take negotiation seems virtually nil. Perhaps the best approach at this juncture would be a long cooling off period during which each country focuses on its own affairs. But this may not appeal to hot heads, who want to take back Kashmir yesterday or those who want Pakistan to know her place.
Why is it that Pakistan state and its journalists , always refer to Pakistan's nucler powers when discussing tensions with India ?? Do you ever see Indian government discussing that with relation to disputes with anyone , not just Pakistan but as related to China ?
If Pakistan state wants to use nuclear weapon against India. Go ahead and use it.
The only thing one can achieve,is not interfere in each other lands.we stay away from Kashmir and they stay away from Baluchistan and FATA/TTP. By the way all this bashing about Pakstan being epicenter of terrorism is just an attempt to take away the discussion...as if 60,000 innocent lives did not perish away in Kashmir at the hands of Dehli Establishment. There was a reason why Rajiv Gandhi went down-These Indians were not distributing roses in Tamil lands...what is happening in Assam/Orissa..the list goes on.....
Talk......About what??????????