PM Modi should be relieved that US President Trump believes India and Pakistan can resolve differences over Kashmir bilaterally. But Trump is unpredictable, Kashmir situation is fluid and PM Imran Khan has again vowed to raise the pitch globally. This is just the beginning of long diplomatic jousting for India.
Press Council should be promoting media freedom, not backing curbs on it
Press Council of India’s support for media restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir is alarming and unacceptable. Preserving press freedom is the core remit of the council. The last thing expected of the council is to impede this. Free media is imperative now in J&K to help restore confidence among Kashmiris.
We can have talk with Pakistan on two conditions: 1.Pakistan has to decide who will talk on their behalf. Earlier Nawaz Sharif had a talk with Vajpayee. Kargil happened immediately. Manmohan had a talk and then cam 26/11.
2.If Pakistan is sincere, let them show that in the form of curbing terrorism. The perpetrators need to be brought to book as desired by global community.
Until they commit for the above, it is just futile to engage with Pakistan at any level. May be for the sake of it, Bollywood can have tour of Pakistan and conduct shows to entertain Pakistanis. Aman ki Shanti.
Read a very depressing column by Ms Raksha Kumar on the site of the Pulitzer Center – not linked to the Pulitzer Prize – where she describes the broken state of the Indian media, concluding that the rank of 140 out of 180, behind Afghanistan and South Sudan, does not fully reflect its predicament. There is a direct cause and effect relationship between the state of the media and how well we are doing as a nation, in virtually all spheres, including the economy. People far above us should worry.
If India and Pakistan can reassure the world that they will not go to war, it – led by the US – would be happy to distance itself from the woes of the subcontinent. However, there is perhaps a troubling realisation that the two countries are in no position to resolve their differences peacefully, through a bilateral dialogue. That a certain tension is building up which, in the case of plate tectonics, is finally released through an earthquake. Even the nuclear arsenals of the two adversaries are not creating sufficient deterrence. Since the two countries are not talking to each other, common well wishers will have to engage with both of them, to keep the lid on.
They have been talking for seventy years with no result. Please allow at least seventy days, or seven months, and then we will see.