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Letter: Time to bury the old hatchet?
Most of us Indians are quite used to unflattering account about our country in the foreign media, so it was a pleasant surprise to read Alistair Scrutton’s article (http://www
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ost of us Indians are quite used to unflattering account about our country in the foreign media, so it was a pleasant surprise to read Alistair Scrutton’s article (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6590YJ20100610) in the Post’s June 11 issue.
We are proud of what we have achieved, particularly while operating under a democracy that has remained so almost all through 60-odd years since India’s independence.
We are a country which has never invaded another country for thousands of years and that includes Bangladesh which Indian Army handed over to Shaikh Mujibur Rehman at the earliest and returned home. India is far from rich, but it has always refused dole, preferring, instead, to take loans which it has always repaid. As an impoverished country, India would like to employ all its resources to enrich its people’s lives, but can’t do so presently.
As Scrutton says in his article, India has reached a stage where it is no more uneasy about being “hyphenated” with Pakistan. And India looks at Pakistan just as an unfriendly next-door-neighbor, an obstacle in India’s way to rapid economic progress. Interestingly Pakistani people also apparently don’t have feelings of enmity with India.
In August 2009, Al Jazeera (and not some “decadent” Western media) conducted a survey amongst Pakistani people to assess what they perceive as a threat to their country (http://tinyurl.com/m65wbh and http://tinyurl.com/nwlv99).
While only 18 percent of the Pakistanis considered India as a threat to their country, a whopping 59 percent people perceived the US, the very country on whose largesse Pakistan depends, as the biggest threat to their country! This means Pakistani people have moved away from feeling threatened by India.
While Indians welcome this development, it’s a pity that Pakistani government hasn’t changed its stance.
Democracy hasn’t taken roots in Pakistan. If and when it does, this
silent majority might vote in a government which doesn’t consider India
as a threat to them. Such a democratically elected government might
bring in policy changes that will pave the way to better relations
between the two countries. It is about time!
K.B. Kale
Jakarta
