Farooq Abdullah slams the BJP for using the Kashmir issue to win elections
Abdul Bari Masoud | Clarion India
NEW DELHI — A fervent desire to restore normal ties between India and Pakistan and improve relations was unambiguously articulated during a discussion at the India International Centre (IIC) here on Friday evening.
Former diplomats, academics, thought leaders and peace activists from the two neighbouring countries attended the event. Participants from Pakistan were linked via Zoom for the rare interaction between the two countries.
Addressing the gathering, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using the Jammu and Kashmir issue to win elections.
The event, organised by the Centre for Peace and Prosperity, also saw the launch of a book ‘In Pursuit of Peace: Improving Indo-Pak Relations (Volume 2) edited by OP Shah, founder and chairman of the centre.
Former Vice President Hamid Ansari launched the book. Making a strong plea for peaceful and normal ties between the two neighbours, Ansari pointed out that the two neighbours not only enjoy political relations but they are in human relationship which matters more. “From time to time, we have resolved or nearly resolved our differences. Both countries could have navigated their relationship more effectively; however, it has been intermittently disrupted without any political rationale. Neighbours have no choice but to live together,” he said.
Ansari lauded the book, which includes 52 articles and essays by writers from both countries on Indo-Pak relations. Its editor, OP Shah, has made a remarkable contribution and offered a yeoman’s service to the search for peace between the two neighbouring countries.
Ansari lauded the role of the late ambassador Satinder Kumar Lambah in bringing India and Pakistan closer to an understanding. “Once the two countries had agreed to ink an accord, papers were ready and were just to be signed by the two sides. But fate willed otherwise and this was not to be as an accidental happening on the other side due to an unseemly confrontation between the chief justice and head of state of Pakistan pre-empted this since lawyers in Pakistan launched an agitation,” recalled Ansari.
Dr Abdullah, who spoke at the end of the event, called for an end to hate-mongering resorted to by both India and Pakistan. “It is not the territorial change but the change in hearts towards each other which matters,” he remarked.
“Unfortunately hate still exists, and until we stop hating each other, nothing will change. India and Pakistan were split apart due to enmity not because of love,” he said.
About the abrogation of Article 370 which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, without taking the name of the ruling party the former chief minister said they (the ruling party) have been bragging that they have merged Kashmir into India to win the vote. Quoting former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s famous words, “We can choose our friends, but not our neighbours”, he stressed the need to revive the SAARC forum.
In between Ansari and Dr Abdullah several Indian and Pakistani thinkers spoke with complete unanimity or consensus about the need for a resumption of dialogue between the two countries. Some of them reminded those present that throughout the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union never gave up diplomatic contacts, dialogue or talks and mechanism to reach each other in the wake of a contingency.
Former federal minister of Pakistan Javed Jabbar, whose contribution figures in the book, stressed the inevitability of exchange and dialogue between India and Pakistan as has been shown by talks on several earlier occasions. He called for the resumption of the process in a sustained manner whether through diplomatic means or backchannels.
Pakistan’s former foreign secretary Jalil Abbass Jilani who was also interim foreign minister for a few months noted disparate voices for peace and dialogue that emanate from both sides of the border. “These have to be listened to and responded to to resolve issues related to security and economic impediments for the sake of improving the lot of the people on both sides of the borders,” he said.
Several speakers from Pakistan lauded India’s former Union Minister and diplomat Mani Shankar Aiyar’s strong advocacy for sustained and uninterruptable dialogue and a permanent peace mechanism. Aiyar reiterated the same resolve and its imperativeness, given the sad state of Indo-Pak relations despite several attempts to improve them thus far.
Former Air Vice-Marshal Kapil Kak spoke movingly about the deep yearning for peace and harmony in Indo-Pak relations in his native state of Jammu and Kashmir whose people have mainly suffered because of the long and still continuing hostilities and chilly ties between the two neighbours.
Senior Pakistani journalist Imtiaz Alam, who spearheads the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA), made a fervent plea for the resumption of SAARC. “If the two countries continue to disagree to meet in each other’s country, they could well opt for a third venue as is also the case with the current Champions Trophy in cricket and in case of SAARC India and Pakistan don’t have to go even as far as Dubai since there are other countries in South Asia which could host the next SAARC summit.
Among others who took part in Friday’s lively discussion included, Ambassador Ajay Bisaria, former RAW chief AS Dulat, noted Indian journalist Qurban Ali, Pakistan’s famed dramatist Shahid Nadeem, and Indian spiritual leader Swami Susheel Goswami.
Pakistan’s current Charge d’Affairs in India Saad Ahmad Warraich sat through the discussion which was heard in rapt attention by the select gathering at the IIC.
Commenting on the book, OP Shah said that 52 distinguished writers who contributed their exclusively written articles to make another edition of the book after the first one was published four years ago have unreservedly endorsed the imperative need for peace between India and Pakistan. Their differences in opinion were confined to their ideas about how to achieve this.
The book warns against the dangers of strategic neglect while highlighting the urgent need for communication and diplomacy between the two nations.
