My column in TOI today on Indo-Pak peace, posted here. Do read, would love to know your thoughts. Also read the comments left on this blog, which often tend to be very interesting and insightful as well.
well written! u wrote from ur soul!
very good dream! every Indians dream!
can we bring revolution(democracy) in pakisthan?
bhai,they r our own family.. lazy buggers!
my view: there r two points to catalyst the peace process!
dismantle pakisthani punjabi dominated army!!
& remove north Indians from the negotiating table( they have seen it! hate factor is more in their blood! )
forgive me for writing rudely! me to belongs to CB family;)
let us pray – all is well
The defense budget savings you refer to in building an economic case towards peace is a notional saving assuming talking peace would bring down defense budgets… this has never happened in the history of both the countries, irrespective of the communicative stage of the two countries.
We both battle a common enemy; terrorism; it’s a different point that India believes it’s the state sponsored terrorism. So long as this belief holds, there is little merit in talking peace with the same govt machinery, which sponsors attacks such as Mumbai attacks (There is evidence of govt support to the terror attack at Mumbai according to Indian Home Minister; even otherwise ISI and Pak govt are not naive enough to let pass a convoy of terrorists in a jetty to India)
I think a better economic reason could be looking Pakistan as a market, which both TOI and JUNG realize, and hence the spends towards marketing each other in their respective countries.
Statesmen bigger than politicians such as Vajpayee have failed to inspire peace in pakistan which as a nation is a failed nation. The only redemption can come to them through it’s own people. So long as they keep on electing leaders like Zardari, there’s little hope and chance for peace to prevail.
I am all for peace too but when did we attack Pak in any way so as a nation we have been at peace (irrespective of the no. of people who die in terrorists attack)probably because of the nuclear deterrent and attacking Pak would potentially create an even more unstable Pakistan (Look at Afghanistan and Iraq), so peace is required to have a more stable Pak which is in our interests.
Chetan, while reading first part I felt you are trying to avoid clashes with some “not so political” political establishments in our country, then as always your hard work at IIM reflected in the form of calculation, but after that I can’t agree with you, as you should understand that peace with Pakistan is simply not possible, and some how I feel that even you understands it but hiding it, and if not lemme try to make a not so valid point
In all types of trainings and education in pakistan it is taught to them that India is a Hindu nation, so basics of our relation is not correct and it is very unlikely that it can be corrected in near future, secondly most powerful establishment of pakistan i.e army is anti India, and they are so because they have huge shares in business in pakistan and they controls them by creating a fear from India,thirdly china is using pakistan and it won’t let it slip so easily that too after investing so heavily in projects like Gawadar,karakoram highway and IPC pipeline, there is always a skepticism in pakistan over role of India in afghanistan, and they will find it really hard to let go taliban from there hand, about nuclear issue I would say that firing a missile doesn’t means that it will hit the target, there is a defense mechanism against that too, we have to spend on defense not just because of Pakistan, but also because of China, and you must be knowing about diplomacy and it’s role and I feel you can understand the role of military strength in diplomacy else country like UK which has no enemy, needs a huge military power, and spend so much money on defense. so I find your logic quite flawed. However if you wish to clear some of my misconceptions you are welcome. But at the end I would say peace is the best option and wat you wanted to say was absolutely correct. all the best keep it up
I liked the article…I too want to see peace between these two nations..and i am all for it …but my comment just refers to my thoughts…. i just wonders is there another “Chetan Bhagat” on the Pak side…who think the same….i know you recently had a meeting with a writer from Pak…can you share some thoughts from his side…how do people believe on the other side. Bcoz merely making attempts from one side can never make a difference.. even though i know its a joint effort but we need to see the other side of the coin as well..Aman ki asha will surely become aman ki ashes if the attempt is single sided…
Also it would be great to hear the comments from the other side…does ppl have same beliefs or is it just Indians who are more towards it…i know there may be ppl like us on the other side but we need to know….
Peace wid pakis is the most irratonal thing in todays scenario… how can one trust them after knowing their past record… we will keep harbouring on “aman ki asha” – the peace mission n they … as usual will indulge in cross border firing violating ceasefire..promoting terrorism… MOREOVER PAKIS cant be trusted with their nuclear power NEVER EVER. You are absolutely right PEACE – a desire to live and let live but Can you trust pakistan on this … they only want to live themselves but not us .. not anyone
Sorry Bro. The broad outline of Peace is good, but we’ve done and suffered enough by making constant overtures. Peace is always a 50-50 effort of two sides, not 1. Kargil, 26/11, the attack on the parliament, our movies not being shown in theaters in Pak, our artistes are not welcome- no visas, their school books propagating hate against India etc, etc. Dude, this is just not on. Once, just once, why don’t we have some pre-conditions for talks?
We all agree, peace is the best thing that can happen, but not at a high cost for us. Read up on Niccolo Macchiavelli’s The Prince. It describes how a prince/ruler/government should behave to succeed. Whilst all of it might not be relevant to today’s world, a lot of it is very, very relevant.
Hi,
Good article.ever since my childhood from from ‘Bus to Lahore’ by vajpayejee to present offer to peace processes.How long can we be tolerent to these impenetrable curs who are like parasites to our nation?
we should be ashamed for our politicians too for their pre and post campaigning speeches. What about their speech on recovering all accounts that are at Swiss bank? what about their actions on IT recovery from our so called politicians and tycoons? power came… money came… now play the blame game.
Hi Chetan,
By stating that peace with Pakistan does not mean love you have in one line defined what our goal vis a vis Pakistan should be while addressing at the same time the visceral reaction that Pakistan evokes in all Indians.I think this has been understood clearly by successive Indian governments and the mandarins in the Indian foreign office.One can fault them however for not conveying this to the public with the clarity that you have.The billion dollar question is how does one achieve this given the many vested interests that exist in Pakistan?
Very well written article…
We need peace not because we love Pakistan but we love India and we can’t see astronomical spendings on defence while millions of Indians do not get their meals due to poverty , thousands of families have excluded pulses from diet due to inflation…with the fact that India or Pakistan they can’t overpower each other as nuclear weapons are with both.
So peace can help us grow because we must focus our efforts on more productive concerns.
nice article but hypothesis with hypothetical confidence levels of calculations.Media abstain may be a better route as all forms of reporting irrespective of any category of news is with politics and terrorism which does no good to our thoughts or our lives
Chetan,the column u have written on the pease issue b/w India and Pakistan is truly what most of the youngsters of my country think but i would also like to point out that you are triyng and being highly diplomatic and binaric at the same time i wonder how you manage it all the time u have certainly echoed our thoughts.
Hi Chetan !
A factually correct well written article ! but before we compare the amt of money that is spent on defense or golden quadrilateral ,we need to introspect & undertsand the fact that who do we elect to spend that money. A set of leaders who spend crores of money in making flower arrangement for just a state ministers meeting(KARNATAKA) or governors who transform the governor house into brotheral?…or leaders who spend crores of money in making state of art…personnel statues..or people who are not capable of finding out any name other than one of the late gandhi’s for every new landmark (sea-link) that is being made…Do you expect such people will be worrying abt teh defense expenditure ?
Undoubtably peace has a great economic value but, before everything,we need a through change in our system of governence..
well written! u wrote from ur soul!
very good dream! every Indians dream!
can we bring revolution(democracy) in pakisthan?
bhai,they r our own family.. lazy buggers!
my view: there r two points to catalyst the peace process!
dismantle pakisthani punjabi dominated army!!
& remove north Indians from the negotiating table( they have seen it! hate factor is more in their blood! )
forgive me for writing rudely! me to belongs to CB family;)
let us pray – all is well
Awesome article … nicely done
plz unblock me on twitter
Loved the article and the message.
Especially the end note of the song “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”
Hi Chetan,
I liked the article. You have mentioned it very wellb
Channelise the libido, save the youth http://iitashish.blogspot.com/2010/02/channelise-libido-save-youth.html
The defense budget savings you refer to in building an economic case towards peace is a notional saving assuming talking peace would bring down defense budgets… this has never happened in the history of both the countries, irrespective of the communicative stage of the two countries.
We both battle a common enemy; terrorism; it’s a different point that India believes it’s the state sponsored terrorism. So long as this belief holds, there is little merit in talking peace with the same govt machinery, which sponsors attacks such as Mumbai attacks (There is evidence of govt support to the terror attack at Mumbai according to Indian Home Minister; even otherwise ISI and Pak govt are not naive enough to let pass a convoy of terrorists in a jetty to India)
I think a better economic reason could be looking Pakistan as a market, which both TOI and JUNG realize, and hence the spends towards marketing each other in their respective countries.
Statesmen bigger than politicians such as Vajpayee have failed to inspire peace in pakistan which as a nation is a failed nation. The only redemption can come to them through it’s own people. So long as they keep on electing leaders like Zardari, there’s little hope and chance for peace to prevail.
I am all for peace too but when did we attack Pak in any way so as a nation we have been at peace (irrespective of the no. of people who die in terrorists attack)probably because of the nuclear deterrent and attacking Pak would potentially create an even more unstable Pakistan (Look at Afghanistan and Iraq), so peace is required to have a more stable Pak which is in our interests.
Chetan, while reading first part I felt you are trying to avoid clashes with some “not so political” political establishments in our country, then as always your hard work at IIM reflected in the form of calculation, but after that I can’t agree with you, as you should understand that peace with Pakistan is simply not possible, and some how I feel that even you understands it but hiding it, and if not lemme try to make a not so valid point
In all types of trainings and education in pakistan it is taught to them that India is a Hindu nation, so basics of our relation is not correct and it is very unlikely that it can be corrected in near future, secondly most powerful establishment of pakistan i.e army is anti India, and they are so because they have huge shares in business in pakistan and they controls them by creating a fear from India,thirdly china is using pakistan and it won’t let it slip so easily that too after investing so heavily in projects like Gawadar,karakoram highway and IPC pipeline, there is always a skepticism in pakistan over role of India in afghanistan, and they will find it really hard to let go taliban from there hand, about nuclear issue I would say that firing a missile doesn’t means that it will hit the target, there is a defense mechanism against that too, we have to spend on defense not just because of Pakistan, but also because of China, and you must be knowing about diplomacy and it’s role and I feel you can understand the role of military strength in diplomacy else country like UK which has no enemy, needs a huge military power, and spend so much money on defense. so I find your logic quite flawed. However if you wish to clear some of my misconceptions you are welcome. But at the end I would say peace is the best option and wat you wanted to say was absolutely correct. all the best keep it up
Hi Chetan,
I liked the article…I too want to see peace between these two nations..and i am all for it …but my comment just refers to my thoughts…. i just wonders is there another “Chetan Bhagat” on the Pak side…who think the same….i know you recently had a meeting with a writer from Pak…can you share some thoughts from his side…how do people believe on the other side. Bcoz merely making attempts from one side can never make a difference.. even though i know its a joint effort but we need to see the other side of the coin as well..Aman ki asha will surely become aman ki ashes if the attempt is single sided…
Also it would be great to hear the comments from the other side…does ppl have same beliefs or is it just Indians who are more towards it…i know there may be ppl like us on the other side but we need to know….
Peace wid pakis is the most irratonal thing in todays scenario… how can one trust them after knowing their past record… we will keep harbouring on “aman ki asha” – the peace mission n they … as usual will indulge in cross border firing violating ceasefire..promoting terrorism… MOREOVER PAKIS cant be trusted with their nuclear power NEVER EVER. You are absolutely right PEACE – a desire to live and let live but Can you trust pakistan on this … they only want to live themselves but not us .. not anyone
Sorry Bro. The broad outline of Peace is good, but we’ve done and suffered enough by making constant overtures. Peace is always a 50-50 effort of two sides, not 1. Kargil, 26/11, the attack on the parliament, our movies not being shown in theaters in Pak, our artistes are not welcome- no visas, their school books propagating hate against India etc, etc. Dude, this is just not on. Once, just once, why don’t we have some pre-conditions for talks?
We all agree, peace is the best thing that can happen, but not at a high cost for us. Read up on Niccolo Macchiavelli’s The Prince. It describes how a prince/ruler/government should behave to succeed. Whilst all of it might not be relevant to today’s world, a lot of it is very, very relevant.
Hi,
Good article.ever since my childhood from from ‘Bus to Lahore’ by vajpayejee to present offer to peace processes.How long can we be tolerent to these impenetrable curs who are like parasites to our nation?
we should be ashamed for our politicians too for their pre and post campaigning speeches. What about their speech on recovering all accounts that are at Swiss bank? what about their actions on IT recovery from our so called politicians and tycoons? power came… money came… now play the blame game.
Regards
Hi Chetan,
By stating that peace with Pakistan does not mean love you have in one line defined what our goal vis a vis Pakistan should be while addressing at the same time the visceral reaction that Pakistan evokes in all Indians.I think this has been understood clearly by successive Indian governments and the mandarins in the Indian foreign office.One can fault them however for not conveying this to the public with the clarity that you have.The billion dollar question is how does one achieve this given the many vested interests that exist in Pakistan?
Very well written article…
We need peace not because we love Pakistan but we love India and we can’t see astronomical spendings on defence while millions of Indians do not get their meals due to poverty , thousands of families have excluded pulses from diet due to inflation…with the fact that India or Pakistan they can’t overpower each other as nuclear weapons are with both.
So peace can help us grow because we must focus our efforts on more productive concerns.
Well said Dada(big brother in Bengali)!
Peace is the only solution for all the conflicts between the two boundaries!
I hope people who are opposing any kind relation with Pakistan start thinking again after reading your article.
nice article but hypothesis with hypothetical confidence levels of calculations.Media abstain may be a better route as all forms of reporting irrespective of any category of news is with politics and terrorism which does no good to our thoughts or our lives
Chetan,the column u have written on the pease issue b/w India and Pakistan is truly what most of the youngsters of my country think but i would also like to point out that you are triyng and being highly diplomatic and binaric at the same time i wonder how you manage it all the time u have certainly echoed our thoughts.
Hi Chetan !
A factually correct well written article ! but before we compare the amt of money that is spent on defense or golden quadrilateral ,we need to introspect & undertsand the fact that who do we elect to spend that money. A set of leaders who spend crores of money in making flower arrangement for just a state ministers meeting(KARNATAKA) or governors who transform the governor house into brotheral?…or leaders who spend crores of money in making state of art…personnel statues..or people who are not capable of finding out any name other than one of the late gandhi’s for every new landmark (sea-link) that is being made…Do you expect such people will be worrying abt teh defense expenditure ?
Undoubtably peace has a great economic value but, before everything,we need a through change in our system of governence..
ttp://takshila-vidushi-speaks.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html
vry nice