Hate-mongers on both sides

Within hours of the announcement that Pakistani cricket team will tour India for three ODIs (one day international) and two T-20 matches in the coming December, Hindu right wing hardliner party Shiva Sena strongly opposed this proposed cricket matches series. They threatened to disrupt the Pak-India matches by force. A few weeks back when the Pakistan government announced the pardoning of an Indian spy, Sarabjit Singh, who had already spent 21 years behind bars, a number of religious parties got active same evening to protest against the possible release of Sarabjit. Apparently, the Pakistani government came under pressure from the Pakistani right wing hardliners and within hours it was announced that the prisoner to be released is not Sarajbit but another Indian national, Surjeet Singh.
There are hate-mongers on both sides of the border who will try to advance their agenda on any pretext – cricket match, release of prisoners, establishment of trade relations, enhancing of educational and cultural interaction. When they fail to deter the people-to-people contact, they stir up trouble through other means (such as Kargil, Samjhoota express, Mumbai attacks) to drum up the war beats.
The other day Barack Obama has put it quite bluntly that both India and Pakistan need to settle their differences on their own; Americans are not ready to mediate in-between. Hardliners in both countries, who are in fact two sides of the same coin, need to realise that it’s not the time to compete on war fronts. It is the economy, standard of living and provision of education, health care and other basic amenities at the grassroot level which determines who is who, not the stockpiles of weapons. Dismembering of Soviet Union is a living proof that weapons alone can’t do any good when people are queuing for hours in front of bread shops.
Perhaps, one day these hardliners may learn this historical lesson. But it seems they want to learn it hard way.
MASOOD KHAN
Saudi Arabia