The Foreign Minister of Pakistan should learn when and where to open his mouth. He and his goddamn ‘core issue’ daal can be fried later. By making such statements the Pakistan Government it seems has condoned the despicable acts. As far as most people in the world are concerned the ‘core issue’ is: When will Democracy return in Pakistan?. The military captured the power in this country almost 5 years back. The people don’t even have the right to decide who should rule them. And this fellow has the audacity to speak about other people. I want to know who gave him the power to be the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Forget people in Kashmir he doesn’t even have the right to speak about (or represent) the people of Pakistan. The common people in Pakistan have not decided him to be their representative. Power thief Gen. Mushraff is still clinging to President’s office mainly because of the looming terrorist threat in western countries. And since Pakistan is a ‘frontier state’ West (in particular USA) needs him and so keep him in a good humour (quite difficult that one considering denizens in Army have very limited sense of humour!!). He is been seen as ‘modern’, I guess it has more to do with the western attire he wears making him less scary than any Mullah. Mushraff is the kind of guy West can deal, or so he has successfully projected himself. At the end of the day he is just a military dictator whatever cosmetic effort done. Offcourse one need add in case of free elections the chances of far right winning is a distinct possibility. So his is a ‘lesser devil’ card. The West (and even India) has indulged him for long for these reasons. It doesn’t mean they cross the line. These views of ‘Foreign Minister’ Kasuri are very provocative. How about someone responsible in India saying after, say a bomb blast in Lahore (god forbid) wherein hundreds die that this has to do with military dictator rule and since we in India are democratic we want them to be a democratic??. Off course such irresponsible things may not be expected from India due to effective checks and balances. There is an open media here; there are political parties to question and so on. Recent gagging and killing of media persons in Pakistan is not unknown to world. The ‘core issue’ at this point in front of the world is the early return of democracy in Pakistan. The ‘core issue’ is allowing dissident political leaders of Pakistan (like Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Shariff) back in the country without threat of prosecution or physical harm from the authority of the presiding Dictator. The ‘core issue’ is also insuring free and fair Media for the people of Pakistan.
The India Government’s foreign policies has been to a large extend dictated by North Indian centric people (they say at one point Indian foreign service suffered from MENONgites!!. But the fact is Delhi is in North India and is very much influenced by overwhelming Punjabi type crowd, many have seen partition ….and they have their counterpart in Pakistan….its quite a get together. Same culture, same food habits and so on). India however is too big a country. Pakistan is an important neighbor no doubt but just because Delhi is located in North (therefore the ‘national media’) is not the reason why Pakistan to be taken as most important. In South particularly Tamil Nadu and Kerala States are more concerned with happenings in Sri lanka and south- east Asia like Malaysia and Indonesia (as for keralites they are more concerned about even small events in gulf countries like Kuwait or Saudi or UAE). Uttar Pradesh and Bihar State are more concerned about happenings in Nepal. West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura States are very much concerned about happenings in Bangladesh. Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are inclined towards happenings in China (if you read ‘Argumentative Indian’-Amartya Sen, there are chapters on India-China historical and cultural contacts). Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram States are into Myanmar. Such a huge country and because of some people in Delhi the whole country it seems to seeing only Pakistan. There is a need to bring back the perspective to match wholeness of this country and its varied people. Evidently the leaders of major political parties and the honchos in media are not equipped for such responsibilities.
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