Conversations 13: Meeting point

Posted on June 12, 2010 by beenasarwar

I forgot to upload the last three Conversations published in The News on Sunday, Aman ki Asha page in Political Economy. The entire archives are also up at the Aman ki Asha website

Conversations 13: Meeting point

June 3 2010

Dear Beena,

Right at the start of this missive, I have been wondering just how we will ever reconcile our diametrically different views on what we call POK/what you call AJK. (Let alone reconcile the names). You are taught that it “joined Pakistan voluntarily”. We are taught that Pakistan grabbed it from us in ’47. What’s the meeting point between these two perceptions? How do we resolve this disagreement? Continue reading →

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Give the one-upmanship a rest (or, ‘Don’t knock it’)

Posted on October 6, 2009 by beenasarwar

My column for monthly Hardnews, India – (I preferred my headline below to the one they gave, ‘Knock, knock… Don’t knock it’)

PERSONAL POLITICAL
Give the one-upmanship a rest

Beena Sarwar

“Let them stew in their own mess, we are better off without them.” Sound familiar? I heard such sentiments voiced recently on three instances – and it reminded me of the globally resented American tendency for self-enrichment and self-aggrandisement, never mind the rest of the world.

The first instance was when I was on a ‘phono’ from Karachi to New Delhi for Newsx TV. Among the studio guests was G. Parthasarthy, whose outlook towards Pakistan reminded me of Vir Sanghvi and Tavleen Singh’s – ‘What’s the point of talking to Pakistan?’ ‘We are not the same people…’

Continue reading →

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