A friend has pointed out that the Indian media is quoting this site as a voice of peace. The two examples below may suffice. However before I thank my Indian friends I need to request one thing. Please don’t just praise my comments, try to understand what I am saying too. I say it because we spent the last night amidst the media again upping the war hysteria. Reason? Because two Indian Airforce fighter planes equipped with the latest weaponry and avionics reportedly tresspassed Pakistani aerial space. I called my sources to confirm the report and the officials on the Pakistani side stood with the report. This was not enough, my sources were interpreting it as a living proof of India’s desire to carry out surgical strikes. When I went to bed a defeated man with the fear that the next morning will bring clouds of full blown war.
Yesterday, let me explain was not an ordinary day. I could not accompany my wife to see the doctor, I think I have mentioned earlier that we are expecting another in about three months. The reason that I could not go there was that I had a recording of my program Sach ya siyasat (aired every Saturday night at 11 PM on NewsOne TV). This week’s topic was the government action against Jamaat-ud-Dawa. I did my bit to muster support support for the government’s action against this outfit. This was the third program on the post Mumbai attacks Indo-Pak relations. Last week I had advocated with the support of senior journalist Imtiaz Alam the case for carrying forward the peace process so that hatemongers are left with any excuse. After this recording I had a meeting with my friend Salman Masood and his colleague Richard Oppel from New York Times on the very same issue. 
When I reached back I was greeted with the news that we are to be blessed with another lovely daughter. The doctor who is supposed to be an expert on these matters told my wife seeing the ultrasound grabs that this daughter is going to be even prettier than my Oxana. I don’t agree though. I have never come across any thing prettier than my first daughter who is about to turn two in January. The second daughter who is expected in early march I believe then will be just as pretty as Oxana. My wife and I were debating the best name for her, Ffiona and Sophie being the two best choices thus far, that we received the reports of the Indian brinkmanship. The resulting frenzy then robbed me of one of my finest moments.
Folks, don’t you get it? Areas on this side of the border are also populated by human beings, mortals, mostly of the same racial stock like you. How many times will it take for the message to sink in that similar war hysteria exists on this side of the border too. One miscalculation can literally wreak havoc. As a defense analyst I have repeatedly read important regional strategic templates like Indian Army Doctrine and the Cold Start Doctrine. Folks, you need to understand that with Pakistan being a nuclear state that too on a high alert ideas like surgical strikes and limited war are non options. I never stop fretting about what could have happened had Islamabad not exercised caution and restraint?
Fortunately, the political government here termed it a technical and accidental incursion and by doing so burried the hatchet. But that is the last time it could do this. Do I have to cry out loud to tell you that the democratic government here is under enormous pressure from the hardliners and that unlike India given the history of military rule in this country, there are limited levers that democratic government can use to control jingoism and brinkmanship. Thankfully we have an army chief who believes absolutely in democracy but not everyone in the army will take the war hysteria with a pinch of salt. Why risk this? It is not worth it. Once a nuclear war starts the damage done on both sides could be much much more than the Mumbai carnage or any conflict in the region. I have already recommended what appears to me the only doable solution. It is your decision what to choose.
Also I will try to upload the video grabs of my talkshows on the net but thus far I have found that my laptop is poorly equipped to convert the large files to smart uploadable format.
Finally I leave you with two examples from the Indian media. 

Times of India while discussing the mostly unrealistic premises of some of Pakistani hawks, on December 2, quoted this site, albeit towards the end, in these words:
“It’s not only random voices railing against fingers pointing to Pakistan. Blogger and journalist Farrukh Khan Pitafi is miffed. “For years I have been advocating peace between India and Pakistan,” he wrote. But he, too, says that India was out of its mind in naming Pakistan as the source of violence without identification of the perpetrators. 
He wrote: “During such a long coverage of the mishap not a single outlet pointed out that Hemant Karkare… was the same man whose dismissal was Narendra Modi’s biggest demand. Or that he was the man on the verge of uncovering the home-grown terror franchise of the Hindu extremists. No channel mentioned Colonel Purohit once during the live telecast, no not even CNN, BBC or CBS. It is sad.”"

And here is the other quote from CNN-IBN. In order to reach the quotation from this site you’ll have to forward this video for exactly 2 minutes and thirty seconds.


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