December 5, 2003 ☼ Foreign Affairs

Writing in Dawn Ayaz Amir points out that the current thaw is just a return to the pre-Feb 99 days, before Vajpayee got onto the famous bus to Lahore. Undoing Kargil took so long and Pakistan is worse off for it.

I totally agree with his conclusion:

But beyond the discontent of the Kashmiri people, peace with India is in our best interests. The Pakistani mind has become a warped mind, afflicted by an excess of militarism, mullahism and jihadism. Nourishing this holy trinity is a common factor: hostility towards India. The liberation of the Pakistani mind won’t be achieved as long as we allow our vision of the world to be shaped by this phobia.

Peace with Pakistan will not be possible until Pakistan gets over Indiaphobia. Do people to people contacts help? Not unless there is a dismantling of the anti-India propaganda machine. Not unless Pakistan opens up to Indian media. Not unless the Pakistan government scraps its ban on Indian movies, music and ‘cultural imports’.

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