India Should Follow Israel's
Example
Indian
Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh asked Pakistan to shut down
remaining terrorist training camps in order to continue the
peace process. Pakistan, as always, denied that there were any
training camps on its territory.
Prime Minister Manmohan made refreshed these
charges against Pakistan in his I Day speech. Before, he made
identical charges against Pakistan during his official visit to
the United States.
There is nothing wrong with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh’s demand. If India feels there are any terrorist
training camps in Pakistan, instead of making such statements in
Washington or New Delhi, it should provide necessary evidence to
Pakistani government and then make this demand.
However, if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is
just making such statements to maintain pressure on Pakistan it
is against the fundamental principles of CBMs being taken
between the two countries.
It is unfortunate, right now an unelected
illegal president is ruling Pakistan, but there should be no
doubt in anyone’s mind that people of Pakistan support the peace
process between two countries. The people of Pakistan want to
solve disputes with India through amicable means. They are
keenly monitoring the measures both governments are taking
towards amicable solution of all outstanding disputes.
So far what people of Pakistan have observed
since the initiation of peace process is that it is only
Pakistan which is taking one sided steps towards peace. They
genuinely feel the Indian government has not reciprocated
Pakistan’s efforts to resolve mutual disputes.
This is definitely not a good scenario.
We all know that people of India and Pakistan
are more ardent than their governments to see peace and mutual
cooperation between two countries. Many activists from India and
Pakistan have off and on taken different steps to bring peace
between two countries.
If the people of Pakistan have started
feeling dismayed about the reciprocity of Indian government
about peace process, the Indian government should pay attention
to their emotions. It is not only important for Pakistanis to
see reciprocity from Indian government, Kashmiris who are the
primary victims of India-Pakistan rivalry would also like to see
some forward movement in peace process.
Recently, Israeli government decided to pull
out from Gaza strip to further the peace process between Israel
and Palestine. Israeli pull out gave feelings of jubilance to
the people of Palestine. Israeli pull out from Gaza will
definitely generate some goodwill towards Israel among
Palestinians.
India should follow Israel’s example and take
some concrete steps to show its sincerity and longing for peace.
If nothing else, India should immediately announce to pull out
its forces from Kashmir and provide relief to Kashmiri people.
Empty statements by Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh are not going to make any different on the
ground. The people of India, Pakistan and Kashmir want to see
some concrete steps which validate India’s desire for peace.
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