This thread is yet another example of why Indians and Pakistanis cannot have sane discussion about serious issues.
I have watched the video and sorry to say that our guy, ex-Prez Musharraf lost his cool. At many instances he was no better than our top intellectual (NOT!) his highness Sheeda Tulli (or Izzat Maa=aab Sh Rasheed Pindi walay).
Prez should have known better. TV news anchors these days (or any day) are there not to look for truth, no Siree.
TV news anchors go almost mad to keep their ratings up. The ratings must be kept up otherwise who will pay for the big fat salaries and perks of the TV staff. Who will.
From Pakistani POV, Indian man on the street is looking for few things.
1. Pakistan is as good neighbor as anyone else.
2. Pakistan is 1000 more beneficial to India than any other country in the region.
India being 10+ times bigger will have this attitude whether we like it or not.
I mean heck, we should see how we react to Afghanistanis who are 10+ times smaller than us. How?
We ask the same two questions over and over and over and over and over about Afghanistan too. We may not articulate the same way, but these two very questions are on our mind when we think of Afghanistan.
Then why on earth we won't accord the same decency to our Eastern neighbor.
Oh yeah. Sure they are bullies in the area. They don't treat us well.
I mean look at majority of posters on this Pakistani forum, and see how with few exceptions, Indian posters bully and push us around.
So on PDF, we can use the anonymity to curse back the bullies. But we can't and should not do so on an open public forum like TV interview.
Why?
Because we immediately get painted as mad Mullahs (with or without beard) from the tribal bad lands of the Middle East, with zero civilization and shunni civilized behavior.
And Prez Musharraf to an unemotional and balanced eye from Pakistan, comes across like a mad man frothing on his mouth.
This is way below his stature as an ex-President of 200 million people, way below the stature of our top army general.
Take the case of the accusation of body mutilations and dead soldiers. This obviously is highly offensive accusation to a Pakistani general. Extremely offensive dare I say.
But the answer to such accusation in public arena is not to froth from the mouth, climb the walls, and threaten and cry.
No Sir. This is the time to calmly put forward the official policy regarding dead bodies. The common cultural attitudes in India and in Pakistan when it comes to handling dead bodies. The common history of the two armies that goes back 200+ years and thus mutual regards among officers and jawans.
What Prez. Musharraf should have said (calmly) to this 2-bit lowly anchor is the following.
1. I am ex-President and top general of Pak army.
2. We may kill or injure Indian army officers or jawans during the time of war
But
3. For POWs and dead soldiers, we have utmost regard, as if they are our own sons and our own people.
---- BTW these are not my words but many Pakistani generals said this on different occasions.
4. If any of our soldier or officer commits a crime while dealing with Indian POWs and dead bodies, we have procedures in place to severely punish the culprit and kick him out of our army, because we don't want anyone to bring the reputation down of our premier institution.
5. And we have received the same response as #3 and #4 from Indian officers and jawans when it comes to Pakistani POWs and dead soldiers and we expect the same will be done in future as well.
6. So my dear anchor, Indians and Pakistani civilians can (they should not, by the way) rubbish each other, but we will never do such a thing or allow such a thing among our armies. We may fight during the day, but when the war is over, we will sit on a table and have chai and samosa and biscuit together.
7. Given a chance, I Prez Musharraf will personally express my condolences to the families of Indian soldiers who got injured or died as a result of a skirmish on the Pakistani border. As a general both Pakistani and Indian young officers and soldiers are like my own family my own sons who just happen to be on the opposite side of a border.
8. In future, we can always use a UN observer team to monitor when bodies are exchanged. This way we make sure that such accusations will never come up. NEVER!
And this stance would have come across positively to an average Indian AND non Indian viewer.
On the same note, Indians too should observe some minimum level of decorum when it comes to our soldiers. These are the creme of our two nations. Both Indians and Pakistanis should not sully their name or their dead bodies in an effort to take cheap political shots at each other.
peace
