Aman ki Asha: Destination Peace!

I woke up on the new year morning to collect my TOI copy at my doorstep and I was bamboozled to see the front page. It read ‘LOVE PAKISTAN’, and what followed those two words were few white pigeons and few paragraphs emphasizing a probable marriage of these two words. And by the time I finished reading those few paragraphs, I was partially convinced with the idea. I flipped over the pages and found the entire edition celebrating the possible concept of Indo-Pak love affair. Well, only TOI could have managed to coin such an idea and trust me howsoever vague and outrageous it might seem but after the mega success of their earlier initiatives of TEACH INDIA and LEAD INDIA, you better ought to believe them. And this time around it seems much bigger and far better as it is a joint venture between Times of India group of India and Jang Group of Pakistan and they have aptly termed the initiative as ‘Aman ki Asha: Destination Peace’.

Honestly speaking we have never managed to keep these two words( LOVE , PAKISTAN) on the same plane all our lives. Now if we force ourselves to give a serious thought, it is not that improbable too. We have grown up with a mental setup that, India and Pakistan can never be on the same platform. But we must realize that all this hatred and docile mental setup has to do with a few bad events, few half minded autocratic rulers and few radical terror outfits maligning and maneuvering our minds to such an extent that we can’t even think of the undeniable truth that people across the border are very much people like us. They are the people who are culturally and emotionally most similar to us as against any other nation in the world. The lifestyle they lead, the festivals they celebrate, the sport they support, the food they eat, the film stars they idolize and the battle against poverty, unemployment, corruption and illiteracy they fight is exactly the same as we have in our country. So why this stressed and consistently wry behavior against each other? Just because of the vested interests of few political parties, sans which they don’t have any agenda to fuel their existence or because it gives the 1^st world nations enough to strengthen their reins in south asia or because of an incumbent fear amongst the rest of the world that if these two vibrant nations get united, there combined might will be a big threat from them to counter.

Practically speaking the major reason why this initiative seems to be a commendable one at this point of time is due to the fact that their hasn’t been any terror attack on our nation in the past few months, rather post 26/11 we haven’t seen any major instances of military insurgence either and that is why we can even fancy of such a possibile love affair with our neighbor. But spare a serious thought that even in the times of those terror attacks and violations at the Line of Control how is a common man across the border a part of those heinous acts? Is he also equally at crime as those dreaded terrorists and leaders are? Is he also an equal conspirator in those hate campaigns and blood stained act? Common sense will say ‘NO’, this hate campaign is just an act of a select few, who are in turn misguiding an innocent lot in the name of ALLAH and JEHAD to adopt this path. So actually the common man across the border is as innocent as we are here in our beloved nation. So why to live in this estranged environment against each other where we can easily live in harmony, love and peace and enjoy each others success and combinely fight against the common cause of Terrorism which is hampering the progress of both these immensely gifted and potent nations.

Gone are the days when Kashmir still remained the major bone of contention between the two nations. I remember there was a period few years back when almost every citizen of this nation was so very possessive and egoistic about Kashmir being a part of our country, its not that people don’t care about Kashmir anymore. But today there are far greater challenges to combat for both the countries, be it internal disruptions in India caused by Naxals throughout the country, be it fight against the cross border terrorism across the nation (against a similar problem few years back, which was confined only to Kashmir), be it fight against basic amenities of food, education, shelter and poverty. Similar is the scenario for our neighbors too, be it their fight against internal fundamentalism, be it their fight against the constant Taliban threat, be it their fight for survival against the basic needs of livelihood. Kashmir comes way down in the priority list for both the nations at this point of time, as things have changed in a big way over last few years. So deploying crores and crores of annual budget just to strengthen ones defence and to outnumber each other in terms of their Nuclear weapon Diaspora and satisfy ones ego at the expense of other more important aspects from a nation’s perspective is nothing but utter stupidity.

So in this context the initiative taken by Times of India and Jang group to bring the people of two nations together by means of various cultural events and activities and to make them realize that its high time that people of both the nations understand this simple fact that they can’t continue with this feeling of hatred against each other just because of those few antisocial groups who are reaping on this highly sensitive issue by poisoning our innocent minds. Its time to inculcate the feeling of Brotherhood, Affection and Love for each other and to fight our problems in a joint way.

I wonder what will happen to this new found love with another 26/11 attack, probably the ambitious love affair might turn into a fling or a mere infatuation deal. But again some facts will still remain the same, that the common man of both the nations will have no part in such heinous acts, hence in the long run love and sensibility for each other should prevail and it should conquer those malicious intentions which are aimed at disrupting our new found but ever lasting LOVE AFFAIR.

Hate Terror, Not the Innocents!

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