This is a very controversial post… So people who believe in the concept of peace, can stop reading it now. And what I meant about the ‘people liking peace’ is the set of people who believe in peace on Facebook by liking the ‘V hand Signal’ by Pablo Picasso. I love a peaceful life too… I want to be safe while walking on the road at midnight holding a laptop and be sure that i am not attacked for it. I want my female friends to be able to walk on the road at 1 AM in the night without the worry of being attacked and raped. And I would love to have a picture of me shaking hands with the Pakistani Soldier on the other side of the border, smiling and post it as a profile picture on Facebook! - Do you think all of the above can happen? Call me pessimistic … I don’t!
The so called peace lovers… human right activists…. can you justify what had been done to Saurabh Kalia ? To brush your memories … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saurabh_Kalia … please read. For the Kargil war as per estimates ( which i believe is wrong, the number is more ) 527 soldiers lost their lives in the war.. I know at least 6 of them personally. Was it a war which we waged against Pakistan ? I am sure you would agree .. No!
Still we have to deal with the mujahedeens … with a plane being hijacked… parliament being attacked… blasts in the capital… and when we all came together ( at least as per new channels ) was when 26/11 happened! Still we are peace lovers !
Well I am not suggesting an alternative called war to calm them…. My dear ‘peace’ loving friends, can you suggest something else so that we can have a peaceful relation with our neighbors ? Another ‘Dandi March’ ? I am sure even the so called mahatma wouldnt have had guts to sit near the border and do that … Our soldiers are better off than him!
Please post your opinions in comments… What can we do? Its high time we think about it !
A few small points: we lost 527 soldiers in the war – any idea how many the other side lost? Somebody’s mourning for them across the border too. In any case we need to separate our feelings about Pakistan the state from Pakistani people, many of whom are equally concerned about individual freedoms like being able to go out at night without fearing theft and rape. I’m equally pessimistic – in an independent history of nearly 70 years, Pakistan has not yet begun to believe in an identity of its own unconnected to India – and my own feeling is, it will take another generation for this to change. In their government and military and ours are people who lived through the partition, so the wounds are hard to heal. Younger people who are indignant by proxy may be more forgiving – or more materialistic and uncaring about what happened to a bunch of old men 70 years ago. I know this sounds callous, but perhaps what we need is some shallow disregard for history so we can get on with our lives in peace and quiet.
I like the of starting point the above comment…in any war both sides lose men, families lose sons, husbands and fathers – and honestly it’s not fair to that child, parent or wife to lose them in a war to some other nation.
Walking peacefully with a laptop or alone if you are a girl has nothing to do with peace – it is more to do with human nature…to want what is not yours and what you have no right to.
India-Pak…it’s a generation old saga and the fourth is growing up with it…we can fight more – but unfortunately innocent soldiers will die on both sides while the men who create the problems will stay in safe havens…bad governance does not mean bad people.
What needs to be done – is that you need to fight the way people fought for their liberty in North Africa recently – but for peace – and that’s for people in both countries to do – Aman ki asha should not be about cultural exchange but rather an intellectual exchange by people for peace
Two of the intelligent women i know answered ! Still whats the answer? Anyways.. the indian govt is still searching for it.. I believe .. we need to fight it and end it!
the “it” we need to fight is pakistan; the “it” we need to end is probably going to be the world. both nations are nuclear-armed (or, if you prefer to be american about it, nukular!) and while india, taking the moral high ground, has declared a no first use policy, in practice all it will take for us to press the red button will be one strike on indian territory.
sabre-rattling is such a guy thing, don’t you think?
besides, economically speaking it is in the interest of both countries to maintain the status quo – our defence industry and theirs are both dependent on stockpiling of men and arms to provide profits in perpetuity.
maybe the way out is for people our age to prevent the sins of the fathers from being visited on the children, though this is harder to do than it sounds. if the people of kashmir think they can survive as an independent nation, let them. (i can see where this is near blasphemy but still…)