Don't blame other for your ills

Don't blame other for your ills
19th Dec. 2009
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/12/19/letter-don039t-blame-other-your-ills.html

It was quite interesting to read the letter, "Export Surplus" in The Jakarta Post of Dec. 15. The title was very carefully chosen and, in its economic garb, all kind of malicious denigration spewed at the country which for the last eight years has been engaged in the war on terror, not just for its own sake but for the sake of humanity.
Such type of propaganda only aims to belittle Pakistan's contribution towards global peace by sincere endeavors to eradicate the scourge of militancy. In the process, Pakistan has suffered immense loss of life and resources.
Without going into the gory details of the letter through which the writer implicates almost everyone in Pakistan for one misdoing or the other, I only wish to assert that one should keep one's own house in order before meddling in the affairs of neighbors. It is not wise to blame all of India's ills on her neighbor.
Frankly speaking, most of the ills India is facing today are of its own doing, the Kashmir issue topping them all. To cover up its atrocities in Indian-held Kashmir, India has never allowed an independent UN mission or human rights body to visit the area. But Kashmir is only the tip of the iceberg as there are a number of other mutinies brewing throughout the length and breadth of India.
Interestingly an article in The Post of Dec. 15 also pinpoints one such movement by the Naxalites. The article very prudently examines the issue of separatist trends in Asia and warns that viewing such tendencies as only the backdrop of religious motivation is totally wrong.
The ideology of the left is experiencing a renaissance which is particularly true of the largest democracy, India.
It is also pertinent to note that despite Pakistan's sincere efforts for resumption of the peace talks, India has not returned to the dialogue table.
It always finds one excuse or the other to stay away from the dialogue process. What moral ground does it have to blame Pa-kistan when it is refraining from talks?
India needs to do some soul-searching herself and answer as to why it has denied the Kashmiris their right to self-determination for the last six decades, why it is persecuting its minorities (read the Sachar Report) and why the countless independence movements are fast surfacing there. What are India's consulates strewn along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan doing? What are they up to?
K.B. Kale needs to do some research on that as well; I am sure that would make another good episode for the letters column.
Farhan Qutab and Faraz Liaquat
Islamabad