Friday, February 24, 2017
On February 14, 2017, the faculty lounge at the LUMS VC office was abuzz with students and other members of the LUMS community, excited to meet the icons of indo-pak peace, the legendary Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni along with the most respected former minister of foreign affairs for Pakistan, Mr. Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, to address them on the topic ‘How to achieve Aman and Amity between India and Pakistan. The talk began by Dr. Rasul Baksh Rais thanking the Indian guest for his visit to Pakistan regardless of the strained relations between the two countries and welcomed him to the university. Mr. Kasuri introduced Mr. Kulkarni as the face of resistance against the low tactics of Shiv Sena in India; a proponent of peace between the two countries, a humanist, an accomplished academic and a vocal advocate of protecting minorities’ rights in India.
Mr. Kulkarni began his address by thanking the LUMS Department of Humanities and Social Sciences for inviting him over to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the young people of Pakistan, whom he saw as the beacons of hope and asserted that he was awestruck by the beauty of not only the LUMS campus, but also the vibrant diverse culture of its student body. Sharing his compliments about the aesthetics of Lahore and its historic attraction as Punjab’s beautiful capital, he began his talk by expressing his condolences over the latest terror attack that rocked Lahore’s busiest roads, claiming many lives. The pain he felt as he heard the blast, he asserted, was the same pain that he experience during the attacks in Bombay in 1993 and it is this aching similarity that must serve as a humanist lens to look at such events across both countries.
Reading a poem written by former Prime minister of India, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ‘Jhang na honey dain gay~’he reminisced the ‘bus yatra’ (bus-pilgrimage) undertaken by the Indian prime minister from Amritsar to Lahore in 1999 and emphasised that it is with similar feelings that he is visiting Pakistan today.
He asserted that how animosity between the two countries wasn’t only detrimental to them as evident in the three wars that have been fought, but also to the world, now that both countries possess nuclear capabilities.
He said that partition it is a reality both countries must accept; without accepting Pakistan and Bangladesh as sovereign, independent separate nation states, there can be no progress in achieving peace. For him, the partition wasn’t exactly a tragedy as the will of the people is enough legitimacy for a new country to have; it was the violent manner in which it happened, that constituted the tragedy and which continues to mark the hostility between the two nations. Remembering Jinnah’s residence and links to Bombay and Gandhi’s persistent efforts for peace in the divided subcontinent, he said that this was not the way the founder’s had envisioned the partition to be. They had wanted the relations between the two nations to be brotherly and full of mutual respect.
For him, religion doesn’t divide as all religions teach humanistic values and condemn bloodshed and animosity. Religion, if anything must serve to unite the people. Likewise, similar culture across the borders especially in the two Punjab must serve a unifying purpose along with the same taste in music, pop culture and ability to understand the same language. He asserted that while undeniably Pakistan and India were two separate nations, the people in them belong to the same family.
Mr. Kulkarni then posed the question to the audience that what are the ways these similarities can be harnessed into potentially good relations between the two countries. He made two suggestions for this; first one being cooperation between Indian and Pakistani universities for establishment of a student exchange mechanism so that young people can actually interact and learn about the people they have been taught to hate traditionally. Secondly, he spoke in favor of economic cooperation and free trade that might work in Pakistan’s benefit more as it will give her access to a larger Indian market. Furthermore, he mentioned that he had proposed to the Indian government to participate in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) so that relation between Pak, India and china three can be normalized and improved based on collective economic benefits. He categorically condemned the notion of the use of Indus Rivers’ water to be used as a tool of coercion by the Indian government to make Pakistan settle for any lesser terms in the deal for Kashmir.
Coming to the contentious issues between the two countries, like the Kashmir issue, Mr. Kulkarni showed his resolve that Kashmir issue must be the top priority for both governments to bring peace in south Asia. He recognised that Indian government’s suppression of the Kashmiris’ voice of freedom and the resulting humanitarian crisis must be condemned, however at the same time, one must recognize the problem of terrorism and that of the non-state actors. He said that the formula conjured up during Mr. Kasuri‘s term as the foreign minister along with President Musharraf from Pakistan and President Vajpayee from India, is the only equal solution ever presented on Kashmir. He expressed that if the current BJP leadership in India wants to be remembered for something iconic, solving the Kashmir issue would be the feather in the cap for them.
This address was followed by some questions and comments from the audience. There was a suggestion made by a former member of national assembly of Pakistan who was present in the audience, for an establishment of a “mothers/daughters of India and Pakistan” forum, where in, issues of empowerment, patriarchal culture and economic opportunity could be discussed. This would, in her view bring the two nations closer in a more effective and practical manner rather than fan following brought by the popular culture elements like music and film.
The session concluded with Mr. Kulkarni presenting two of his books to Dr. Rais for the LUMS Library, namely ‘August Voices’ and ‘Music of the Spinning Wheel: Mahatma Gandhi's Manifesto for the Internet Age”. Lastly, the students posed with the guests for a memorable photograph.
