I still remember 11/9/2001(9/11,sept 11). I had just come from my job and as soon as I entered my home , my dad told me about terror attack which had taken place in UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

It was some thing which was difficult to be believed and as my dad asked me ‘who might have done that’ and my immediate reactions was ‘jisne bhi kiya hoga , woh to gaya’ (who so ever did this , would be finished).

I was glued to television when bush gave the speech . I could feel the world got divided that day as ‘with us and against us’ became the statement. War On Terror got coined soon and we saw usa attacking Afghanistan.

9/11 did brought words like jihad , words like fanatic muslim , radical islam into discussion conversation all across the globe. Bin Laden Became face of terror and taliban the epicenter of worst of human beings.

India did get boost in its own fight of terror since west from being indifferent could see what India had been going through since 1980s. In our neighboring country we saw u-turn done by pervez musharraf from being taliban supporting regime to going after them. To be fair with pervez , he had no other option and any president would have done the same. USA would have walked over pakistan in their quest to get bin laden.

After two days it is going to be ten years of that unfortunate day . The day when innocent lives got lost, the day when only super power looked vulnerable , the day when ugly side of human race could be seen , the day when great religion was misused by fanatics.

Today the face of terrorism is dead. He was killed few months back by brave american man . They entered pakistan and shot the man . It was close to closure but war is still on.

As I look back are we as human race safer than what we were ten years back?. Answer is NO. we still have bin laden inspired entities threatening the world and we have counter bin laden inspired radical threatening muslims.

Sad and worst part of story is that bin laden has died physically but ideologically bin laden can not die. There are people who adore him and would keep following him. There would be people who would come years down the line and adopt/own his ideology.

If we look at pakistan , there have been victims of terrorism as well as being epicenter of it. They have paid price by their lives. Price for act done by zia , taliban , al queda and other radical groups. Price which is too huge , too big and price which we wish no human beings should pay but they are paying .Every second day they have blast and ten/twenties/100s get killed. It is worst form of fanaticism of religion. Muslims are killing Muslims in Pakistan…

Talking about India , yes we have been able to have unprecedented support from world in understanding our pains but our war still is our war and yesterday’s attack shows how vulnerable we still are to terrorism. Yesterday’s attack was claimed by two muslim fanatic groups and in attack out of 12 who got killed 3 were muslims.

Till we have ‘my way only way’  thought among human beings , we would keep seeing innocent people getting killed. 9/11 , 7/7,26/11 are some of its examples.

If we want to avoid more 9/11s and its impact what we need is better understanding between different faiths , different countries and moving above religion , caste, creed , nationality and treating entire human race as one. We need to own up entire human race and cultivate seeds of justice , empowerment , love , affections.

Ten years is long long time but for some people time may have got frozen at 9/11. Those who lost their near and dear ones , my heart goes for them. I just wish that 9/11 becomes not only painful memory but also a day where we can introspect and think about how to take human race forward to what it can become. World had changed on 9/11 but change should felicitate betterment of entire human race.

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Optimistic always sees positive side of the story while pessimistic can see negative side even in success story but realistic are one who know the negative side and understand how it can be nullified while being focused on positive side.

Nation it seems is grossly divided between optimistic and pessimistic. People like arundati roy see poverty while comfortably ignore rising middle class levels , while people in government want to see only 9% growth of India while dont want to talk about thorny issues. Truth as usual lies somewhere in between.

One of negative side of great Indian story is disappearing daughters and crimes against women , which is steadily on the rise in many part of India. Government has been trying its best with various schemes , ad programs to make sure that female foeticide is reduced . But despite various initiative , the female numbers in India remain pathetic.

A international independent survey has ranked India as being no 4 in terms of dangerous places for women in the world. A rank which country obsessed with rank wont be proud about. A rank which can worry even most optimistic person of India and rank which can become new essay for arundhati roy and her associates.

Question is not how we made it into the list but question is why we made it into the list. Perhaps answers lies in looking at 3rd ranked in the list and that is Pakistan. India and Pakistan share culture , food , common heritage and most importantly common ancestors . We have common collective consciousness which proves to be more vital than religion issue which divided the two country.Ironically  India , Pakistan are bhai bhai ,at least on providing safety to women. No matter how both hate each other to be placed in same list but now we find ourselves in same list and that too in hall of shame!!!!!!!!!!.

What made the great nation which boasts of mahan sanskruti become 4th most dangerous place in the world?. It seems to be mystery because at one end India is only place where goddess exist , while on other hand India is also a place where 2 million daughters were killed in the womb in 20 years!!!!!!!!!!!!

Such stats are not only responsibility of government but also of we the people . We need to alter how women are being treated in our country. We need to alter how feminine is being viewed by the nation. NGOs , government , educated class , all need to join hand to eradicate such shameful situation.

How?. We would be giving our inputs on how we think this can be achieved in other posts.

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Fatima Bhutto had visited India Recently. She was there to particpate in India Today conclave. When she was interviewed by India Today , she used interesting word for India and Pakistan , the word was ‘Sibling Countries’. When asked why she uses that word her reply was philosophical but real. Her words felt good and were truth. Truth backed by science no matter what politics of both countries say. She said that India-Pakistan have more things in common than things which divide them. From food to culture to heritage to music to passion. She also said that if we look people to people , we all are same and politicians on both side prefer to divide these two sets of people.

When India and Pakistan play against each other in any sports , it is big big big match and when it comes to cricket , well no one can beat the passion , the emotions , the rivarly and the will to win. As India did best australia in quarter finals , they would now face Pakistan in mohali on 30/3/2011 . It is going to be biggest match of any sports in recent times. The match which would be viewed by 1.4 billions . The match which would see empty streets , closed shops and break from day to day struggles. The match which would beat any trp grosser and would bring highest viewership on television, the match which would decide who plays the final and match would be long remembered.

This is it. This is the match which everyone was waiting for. ICC could not have asked for more, BCCI , PCB , Players , Sponsers , Broadcasters and two nations wont have asked for more. It is THE MATCH OF WORLD CUP-2011 and it would take real toll on players , mentally ,emotionally and physically…

When the world cup started , India was dubbed as favorites to lift the cup. India has been doing good since couple of years and already have been ranked as NO1 in test ranking and No 2 in oneday rankings. While Pakistan was coming out of controversy and ban of three important players. Pakistan was considered dark horse but shahid afridi made his team play impressively. Pakistan managed to beat all but one . They lost against new zealand which was just one bad day. They did beat srilanka in srilanka and aussies in their league matches. They were too good for west Indies in quarters and now they face India in semis.

India on other hand has had mixed tournament. India started with bang but beating bangladesh comfortably . India was looking good against england where its batting power took it to 338 runs but bowling/fielding made sure that we tied with them. Against south africa India look set for another 350 plus score but manage to produce miracle by getting allout with just 29 runs for last 9 wickets!!!!!!!!. Against west Indies , India won comfortably but minnows match was not as dominating as India would have like it to be. Finally India managed to held their nerves and win against aussies in quarter final. If we look at India’s run in league matches , it should have won against england and south africa too but powerplay weakness is out in open for India and its bowling has been more unpredictable than India’s meterology department predictions. Having said that last two matches have seen bit of improvement in bowling and fielding while yesterday’s powerplay saw India getting home without loosing wicket!!!!!!!!!!.

Pakistan is highly talented team and it is going to be high pressure match. India if wants to win , it has to distach itself from pressure and apply themselves , if they do that winning wont be an issue but can they keep pressure off?. Well that would be the key question. For pakistan , shahid afridi and his men are knocking doors of golden opportunity. Being Indian I would have love to see pakistan-India final but since we face each other in semis , India must win the match as my heart desires.

In end cricket must work to bring two brothers together (no I am not gender biased but since this is men’s cricket semis). Brothers as per genetics ,heritage and common history. Let us hope that Best Men win the semis but this event bring two nations closer .

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I was browsing through internet when I came across and article on pakistan written by an pakistani. The long article covered Pakistan’s culture , demography, its philosophy , its fashion , food , major festivals and challenges it faces as an nation.

The article was well written and articulated nicely. The writer nicely met the challenge of narrating what he felt proud about his country , what he felt depressed about in very nice manner. As I was reading the article , I cam across few lines on India which were not what any Indian would like to read about. It blamed India for creating troubles in Pakistan , since Pakistan came into being. The writer narrated that how Hindus and Muslims lived peacefully along with Christians and other faiths under mughals . The writer also narrated how Britishers used Hindus to create rift and rule over India . Britishers in turn gave Hindus bit of power while life of Muslims became hell and that became primary reason for creation of Pakistan.

My natural instinct reading this was reacting in way every Indian would react. But as soon as was about to comment ,a thought came in mind. I said to myself ‘wait a minute , the writer wrote this on basis of what he thinks is correct. He wrote this on basis of what he read as history , while I am commenting on basis of what I think is correct and what I read as history’. I instead of commenting negatively asked the writer curiously about how did he arrive to this conclusion. I agreed that mughals largely were secular but Aurangzeb was not secular and his policies created communal divide more impact fully than any. I also made writer see my point of view about why I consider Muslim rule in India as mixed. Destruction of temples like somnath , demolishing world’s oldest university is example of Muslim conquest and so is akhbar’s secularism , Jahangir’s justice legend.

First mashjid in India came in kerala which was made by hindu raja . When parsis came to Indian as refugee it was again hindu raja who gave them permission to board and conduct their religion without fear and interference. If that is part of history how can hindus make life of Muslim a hell?. Yes we have seen communal riots across India many times and yes Hindus are
equally capable of inhuman acts which we see in riots like any other community which becomes animal during riots.

Coming to India , Pakistan and history, I did read an very nice article on this. Actually it was an interview of an author who said some very logical words. He wrote his interpretation of Mahabharata and according to him who is duryodhan and who is arjun depends from where one is viewing things. For us Pakistan is duryodhan while for them India is duryodhan. We as Indian might not agree to Pakistan’s version of history as well as their perception for India but at same time Pakistanis don’t agree with our version of history and our perception for Pakistan. Now you might say version of history?. Well same event different interpretation. Jinnah believed Hindus and Muslims to be two nations. Genetically he was obviously wrong but in terms of heros , festivals , way of life , well he was not completely wrong . Now ask same question to Pakistani , he/she would agree with Jinnah and ask same question to Indian Muslims , he/she would disagree with Jinnah. Never the less Jinnah created Pakistan which is event registered in history and a reality. Now how we interpretate situations leading to that event and its after effect is what makes relationship of India and Pakistan too complex.

Instead of living in past and history , if we want India and Pakistan to live in peaceful environment we need more and more interaction among each other. When an Indian talks with Pakistani and realizes that at end of day under the layers of Pakistani there is similar human who fears , hopes , loves , wants best for his family and is ready to sacrifice his life for his country  in same way as an Indian who fears , hopes , loves and wants best for his family and he too is ready to sacrifice his life for his country , we would have relationship with is beyond religion , caste and nationality. Relationship between human beings which are at core more similar then we think we are .

India , Pakistan concerns are more common. Here is food of thought. Forget for a day that you are Indian and read dawn or geotv news . I bet same issues would be read in those news sites as that which India faces. Yes some news are bound to be unique but important issues which actually impact life of common people are same. Pakistani would have similar experience while viewing Indian news sites. Yes both sites might have negative articles for each other but actual issues like power , food inflation , corruption , governance , now this are core issues which have similar beat.

We can’t go back and change history. We are left with two choices , keep debating about history , keep hating or criticizing each other , keep viewing each other as enemies which in turn would keep hawks on both sides busy creating more distrust or have choose no 2 option and that is viewing each other as plain humans with all weaknesses and strength and trying to understand each others fears , concerns , goals and aspiration. Path No 2 can lead us to new beginning otherwise we can continue doing what we have been doing since 62 years if we think we can achieve peace through it. But can we?.

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For those who dont know what big boss is here is the brief about it. Big Boss is reality show based on big brother concept . The show does contract with celebrities , locks them up for three month period and their life is captured on camera and shown to the world. Every week celebrities have to nominate others from the house and those who are nominated with higher votes are shortlisted for public voting. People then decide who would stay and who would go.

This is fourth season of big boss and currently the show is being hosted  by salman khan. The current version of big boss has two pakistani celebrities in it. There is trend on who enters big boss house as celebrity. Big boss brings some controversial celebrities to spice up the things. If we look at list of people who made it into big boss season 4 , we have had a master thief on whose life oye lucky oye was made , then we have had lawyer of kasab , a dacoit who turned producer , a big mouth dolly bindra. If we look at pakistani celebrities , we have had a man who dresses like woman and ofcourse veena malik. She made headlines by accusing her one time boy friend Asif of being involved in match fixing. This controversy became her passport to big boss house. If we minus asif episode from veena’s life , chances of her making into the house would have become less and may be big boss would have tried for meera instead!!!!!!!!

Interestingly Indian Government considered big boss season 4 as not suitable for children and ordered it to be aired after 11 p.m. As expected big boss went to court and verdict is pending.

Veena Malik became part of Pakistan television show where her participation came under discussion. According to one of participant (Mufti Abdul Qawi)  veena malik is   disrespecting Islam by behaving so irresponsibly in India on public television!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now Islam is too huge and tall to get disrespect by conduct of one individual at first place and veena malik’s passport to big boss was never her religion. If that would have been the case , India has 18 crore muslim and many big names who are muslims.  Agreed big names like srk , aamir wont be interested in big boss but we have had many celebrities who are muslim and reasonably popular among Indians who would be interested in big boss. If muslim would have be criteria , big boss could have roped in those celebrities.

What Mufti shaab forgot was that people dont view veena malik as muslim but as actress who had something to do with asif and who is from pakistan. If veena malik would have been kiran arora with same credentials , viewers would have not minded that too.

Personally I dont like big boss . I think it is simply waste of time and never watch it but for people who watch it , veena is surely giving them good reason of keeping her in big boss house. Mufti shaab should be glad that Indians dont view her from prism of religion and nationality . Considering how our relationship with Pakistan goes , if Indians viewed her from prism of nationality she would have been out of house long time back.

Coming to prism of religion , well Indians dont view entertainers from prism of religion. If that would have been case shahrukh khan , salman khan , aamir khan , saif ali khan , imran khan , katrina kaif , shabana azmi and many many others wont have become so big.

It is high time that we keep our religious identity to private domain and rate individuals as individuals.

Coming to veena malik , well who knows she might end up winning big boss season 4. What say?

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“primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations.” – This is official stand of wikileaks

Wikileaks  made headlines world over since it came into public domain and whose leaks became part of various news pieces all across the world where different documents were published by various news papers depending on interest of those countries.

For India , usa’s unofficial opinion on cold start doctrine , pakistan’s nuclear issue , china’s blockage on ban of terrorist in un , reports about why ISI cheif didn’t come to India became headlines while for pakistan , zardari , khayani , iran , India related leaks became headlines.

In same way what usa diplomats called various world leaders unofficially also made headlines. For israel , Iran’s threat perception for middle east made headlines . Every nations published leaks which were important for them.

But there is twist in the story. Who would have known that leaks might be misused to push an agenda. The official goal of bringing truth from wikileaks might end up in fooling own citizen’s by pushing agenda in name of wikileaks!!!!!!!!!!

Internet though being powerful medium is still not the mass medium for countries like India , Pakistan and other asian countries. Though many in India and Pakistan use internet still percentage population who doesnot use internet is far more than those who use it. For majority standard mode of getting information is news papers and dailies.

What ever gets published in newspaper becomes reality for readers and they believe almost anything which suits their way of thinking. Very few people would be able to go to wikileaks and personally verify that what has been written in true.

In first example of mis use of wikileaks , pakistan news papers (not all ,some of them) published news in name of wikileaks . The news called some people in Indian army having links with hindu fanatics , Proof of Indian involvement in balochistan and nwfp , Indian’s army general having geonicide attitude , kasab’s confession as immature and hilarious …

Now all above does make nice news for many pakistanis since it co relates with their way of thinking for India . The news is sure blockbuster and perfectly what many might want to read but there is one simple problem in this. All above were made up ones and fake. They were sold in name of wikileaks but were not part of documents which wikileaks published.

Fortunately england’s guardian news agency could spot the sell of fake news and wrote a story on it. This made pakistan newspaper research their news pieces and finally they have expressed regret for publishing false news without verifying.

May be damage is already done but this brings important point on the surface. What if such misuse becomes common. Pakistan news papers might have given the right idea of anti us regimes like north korea or Iran to push their own agendas on their people. It might give idea to burma too.. Something like usa tried to get regime change to get burma as their colony!!!!!!!

It also brings to surface how stories can be planted to manipulate collective thinking and push agendas on people of various countries. The people who are same everywhere , the people who love their families ,want good life and same people who think ,that across the border lives their enemies who want to take away everything from them. Ironically it is people who suffer and people who pay the price most.

Let us hope we dont see more misuse of wikileaks.

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“Musharraf Admits To Pakistan’s Sin” ,” Yes we did it”, ‘Pakistan Ex President makes confession’.

As I went home yesterday and switched on news channel , some or other news channel was showing the news of pervez musharraf’s interview to german magazine. The above three are examples of headlines which were flashed on various news channel.

It looked as if India never knew what pervez was talking about. It looked as if news channel had discovered something which was hidden and secret. But alas it is not the case. What pervez had said India knew , World knew and even pakistan’s civil society knew.

Let us for half n hour forget that we are talking as Indian and let us try to understand from pakistan’s perceptive. Pakistan believes that it has right over kashmir. It tried to get kashmir by waging war in 1948 . It did manage to get part of kashmir with it calls azad kashmir. Part of kashmir remains in India which they call Indian Held Kashmir.

In 1965 India and Pakistan again went on war . But this war also didnot change kashmir’s story and in 1971 war Bangladesh was formed.

Now pakistan has not been able to get Kashmir using its might . It has not been able to get Kashmir using united nations too. So it tried to get kashmir using mode which made USSR run away from afghanistan.As pervez states , they trained terrorist to bleed India. Purpose?. To make India talk kashmir.

Now this seems to be age old story , told and retold million times . So what is new in it? .Admission by musharraf?

Well there is one important point which pervez and his advisors missed. When one uses mode of terrorism to achieve goals , the same terrorism haunts self. USA , Pakistan is paying price of it right now. The network they jointly created along with saudi’s assistance has cause usa’s 9/11 , pakistan’s major life losses in recent times and vunerability of saudi which neautralized 230 terror plots this year.

India which is often accused of supporting LTTE till mid eighties paid price in form of death of Rajiv gandhi.

Terrorist are fanatics and no matter how confident one feels in ability to nurture and handle them , when they would turn against their creator cannot be known. Pakistan is paying price of that today.

So now what?. Does Pakistan want to play with fire forever or wants to do away with the policy for once and all. Do they want lashkars , jaishs , hisbs to sooner or later call the shots in pakistan itself or they want a good prosperous and harmonious relation with India?

To be fair with Pakistan , they need a genuine listening from India. We are neighbours and we can’t wish pakistan away . In same ways Pakistan cannot wish India away. We need good relationship to have better future of subcontinent. Let us sit and discuss maturly (not emotionally) everything under the sun which is matter of concern to them and to us. Let us behave as responsible nations and sort things out.

This confession of musharraf can be welcome instead of sensationalizing. Yes musharraf is playing kashmir card since he has launched a party and wants to trigger emotional bones of pakistanis but few would dare to confess such things.

We always knew it and so this should not sound shocking to us . What we need is workable plan about how we want lashkars,jaishs,harkat to be eliminated , how do we want our relations with pakistan to progess , such that subcontinent lives in peace in future.

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Ricky pointing yesterday said in radio interview that he was shocked. Known as punter himself , he felt that allegation on pakistani team should be investigated to get to the root and he also suspected that it is culture of subcontinent. View which watson too subscribed too in more polite manner. Anil Kumble slammed this stating that it happened in west Indies , southafrica and even Australia . So it is global issue but not culture issue.

Anil has right to say what he said. For player who has played more than 17-18 years in upright way , he has right to slam anything like this but this culture thing needs little elaboration and should be taken in holistic view than just cricket.

When Jinnah came up with two nation theory ,he made up his case citing festivals,aspirations , role model , heros and such things. He argued that heros for Muslims are villains for Hindus and vice versa. He argued that there has always been two nations existing in India.

Jinnah had his way and pakistan was born. By definition word pakistan means ‘land of pure’. So land of pure was born with dream of providing land to subcontinent muslims.

Was pakistan dream bought by all muslims of subcontinent. Answer in no. Many stayed back in India while many moved to pakistan to live their life as per dream in which they were enrolled.

Now as 63 years have passed ,if we look back at all these years , amidst war between India and pakistan , issues like kashmir and terrorism , there are many things which are common in India and Pakistan,Bangladesh.

The number one thing which is common in all three is high level of corruption. Out of 163 countries surveyed , Bangladesh comes is 155 ranked , Pakistan is 134 ranked. India managed to improve its position and is now ranked 84th. So there are 83 more countries in the world which are less corrupted than India but that also means that India is highly corrupted.

Another thing common in Bangladesh , India and Pakistan is governance. While Pakistan and Bangladesh being small countries have often been bullied by army ,India has had democracy barring brief period of emergency . Still highlight of governance in all three countries is lack of accountability , divide and rule , fear based politics.

Since India is home to all religions , division in name of religion is easy. India being home of Hinduism , caste based politics is also easy and what caste,religion can’t do region can obviously do. When all fails , Pakistan’s name is good enough to get the job done.

Pakistan on other hand has 96% Muslims so religion based politics is not lucrative. But region based is. Taking hardline stand and blaming raw,mossad,cia aiming at only Muslim nuclear equipped country comes handy. Similar is story of Bangladesh.

Governance uses tool of corruption ,right from filling personal bank accounts to wooing voters.

When Jinnah called Muslims and Hindus as two different nation ,what he forgot was culture and common heritage. While all three countries share rich heritage and ancient civilizations , in same way it shares minus of that and one of the big minus point is corruption. In great history of Indian subcontinent , cases of betrayal,bribes in form of cash or post too makes its presence felt.We have role models of Ram ,harishchandra in India a stats says it all. Corruption has really become part of subcontinent lives and no matter how much we call ourselves different , we are more same than we think we are. We may call ourselves hindus or muslims but what binds us is common problem.

As scotland yard continues its investigation , it is time to look within and ask ourselves ‘do we have culture of corruption?’. The place which produced bhagat singh , chandrshekar azad , tilak , subash , even non corrupted jinnah and mahatma gandhi , the same place has deep rooted corruption in the sytem , in one’s life.

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Call it plain irony . Pakistan faced worst floods since last 80 years and one of worst crisis since its independence. What geography could not do , what common history could not do , what similar culture could not do ,nature did. India humbly requested pakistan to accept aid from it which pakistan rightly did. The most unpopular country in pakistan ,that is USA was first to reach pakistan for assistance through nwfp border and usa collected around $200 million aid for pakistan. USA also sent its aid chief who co incidentally happens to be Indian-American , Mr Rajiv Shah!!!!!!!!!.

Mr rajiv shah’s pakistan calling was not spared from controversies. Rajiv shah reportely was threatened by extremist not because he has Indian link but because extremist have threatened all foreigners who came to assist pakistan in these terrible times!!!!!!!!. But what sparked controversy is Rajiv shah’s visit to a relief camp. Soon after his visit lashkar-e-taiba urf jamaat ud dawa claimed to dawn’s reporter that the camp is being run by them and so usa indirectly endorsed their activities!!!!!!!!

Rajiv shah and usa’s embassy in pakistan soon denied the claims and counter claimed that the camp was run by non other than united nations.

Lashkar e taiba’s camps are not new . They run terror camps 24 hours a day , 365 days an year but they also run relief camps during floods , earth quakes , run schools , assist poors and such stuffs. They love to run terror camps to kill Indians and run relief camps for branding in Pakistan. It works for them since they continue getting money as charitable trust , gain sympathy among people of Pakistan whom they serve and this helps them in running their killing system.

I dont have objection of lashkar e taiba having relief camps. If they get involved in charity activities for ever , I would be more than happy but running relief camps for needy and using guns to kill innocents at same time is something which doesnot make sense. But with extremist viewing world in narrow prism of we v/s they , human race is again not one unit.

As pakistan battles this calamity let us wish them well and hope lashkar expands its horizon and sheds its narrow view of world..

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If you are part of Indian subcontinent or are aware of Indian history , you might have heard about muhammad ali jinnah.For those who have not heard about him , here is brief about muhammad ali jinnah.

Muhammad ali jinnah was one of the most successful lawyers of british India and was part of congress as well as muslim league . He joined congress in 1896 while muslim league in 1913. He was close associate of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Pherozeshah Mehta and Surendranath Banerjee and these trio had deep impact on him in his early days of politics. He was hailed to be symbol of hindu-muslim unity and was architect of 1916 Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the League.

Jinnah resigned from congress in 1920 and in later part of movement demanded separate country for muslims. This was not before he attempted his 20 point formula which nehru and his team didnt accept. Rest as we say is history.

Jinnah is one of those figures which cannot be discussed without extreme emotional reactions. In India jinnah is person responsible for breaking nation into two.In pakistan jinnah is self less figure who became their savior. Truth lies some where in between but speaking about positives of jinnah can be suicidal as far as politics is concerned in India. Likewise speaking negative about jinnah can backfire in pakistan.

Almost all civil society people of pakistan agree that what jinnah envisioned about pakistan is totally different than what pakistan has become today. Same can be said about mahatma gandhi’s vision for India too..

Jinnah’s vision about pakistan was that of secular country, strong institutes and thriving democracy. Being Indian I dont want to say what pakistan has become since I can be said to be biased , it is for pakistanis to decide whether pakistan is what jinnah dreamt of?

I want to come to another point which Jinnah had made sitting in new Delhi while Pakistan had become certain reality. When he was asked about how he wants relation between India and Pakistan to be like?. He had replied that he wants relationship similar to neighbors Canada and USA.

Now usa and canada has not seen something like direct action day or bloody partition. Jinnah’s statement was more about hope than reality. But never the less it was positive statement.

Since jinnah made statement , India and Pakistan have had 3 wars , 1 mini war , two times on brink of war , un solved disputes , terrorism in India and many many trust deficit events.

Today as pakistan is facing challenges on many fronts and worst kind of natural calamity has hit pakistan , I remembered jinnah and his words about canada , usa. Today as India offered more aid and pakistan refused I wonder how far we have reached?. Instead of usa ,canada we have become more like south korea-north korea. Even taiwan wont have rejected chinese aid in times of calamity. Isn’t it?

I understand pakistanis might not like aid from India , I also believe that pakistan would come out of this challenge but it is irony that aid from country which is 16000 miles away is welcomed but from country which is 160 kms away is not accepted instantly…

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