You cannot talk about peace in an atmosphere of attrition and distrust. Media could play an important role to help develop positive engagement between India and Pakistan. It is extremely important to respect institutional democracy in our respective countries.
The Hindustan Times Political Editor Vinod Sharma said this while speaking during a seminar titled “India Pakistan Relations: the way forward” held at the School of Politics and Internati9onal Relations, Quaid-e-Azam University on 23 February 2016.
He said that “India and Pakistan share a very turbulent relationship where at times it arouses great hope and at times it leaves us deeply desperate and despondent”.
Sharma said that he was not making a presentation on behalf of the India government or his newspaper and rather he was sharing his personal assessment of India-Pakistan relations.
“We have come to a stage where there is a degree of apprehension on our side and a degree of circumspection on your side. Apprehension on our side about what’s going to happen with regard to the threat that we perceive as emanating from Pakistan and circumspection from your side about India’s approach to the promised comprehensive dialogue to address Pakistan’s concerns,” he said.
He said that the confluence of interest between India and Pakistan was essential to give their people a sense of security and hope for the future. The two countries should endeavour to build upon this confluence of interest which will fetch the proposed dialogue, the required public support from both sides of border, he said.
“Vitiation of public discourse can prove to be the biggest threat to peace process in the subcontinent”, he said urging the respective media to play an effective role to help develop positive engagement between the two states.
He said that no prime minister – regardless of which country one talk about – will do anything to compromise his country’s national interest. Popular democracy was good and could not be cast aside but it was extremely important to respect institutional democracy in our respective countries for bolstering positive state-to-state engagement.
He underpinned the need for honest talks, exchange of ideas and sharing of problems between leaders of the two countries to keep the dialogue on track. He said that no dialogue can succeed without trust between leaderships and support of the people.
In his opening remarks, SPIR Director DR Ishtiaq Ahmad said that the current climate was quite conducive for meaningful progress in peace process between the two countries, as both governments and leaderships seemed to be willing to take bold steps for the purpose.
Dr Mujeeb Afzal, the discussant from SPIR, said that India and Pakistan relations were a combination of contradiction and mutuality. He said that the media was of a great relevance in the entire peace process and should play a positive role for normalising relations.