Ack-thoo
http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/repor ... te-2274552
Can India and Pakistan be friends?
While it was nowhere as fiery as last year's debate on intolerance, this year's Tata Literature Live debate on ‘India and Pakistan can never be friends’ was nevertheless a crowd-puller. Author, former diplomat and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and writer-diplomat Pavan Varma were against the motion, while military historian and filmmaker Shiv Kunal Verma and commentator on Indian military and security issues, geo strategy expert and ex-army officer Maroof Raza spoke for the motion at the debate on Thursday which was chaired by journalist Vir Sanghvi.
Speaking first for the motion, Shiv Kunal Verma said: “Cold-blooded geopolitics created Pakistan. For Jinnah it was the division of India, for Nehru it was Partition and for the British it was game set and match. The negative Emotional Quotient, leading from the horrors of Partition and repeated terror attacks is too deeply rooted in our DNA. At best, we can have a working relationship.”
Pavan Varma countered this with the example of Europe: the British, French, and Germans who have fought so many wars, but then formed the EU. To spontaneous applause from the audience, he said there is a cultural umbilical cord between the people of India and Pakistan. “Countries change, people's voices change. How can you rule out the possibility of future friendship?" he asked. "It must be the goal of all mature countries to become friends with neighbours. The benefits far outweigh the risks. To support the motion would assume that there would never be progress in the world.”
He found the premise of the motion wrong and wondered aloud if it shouldn't have been, “India and Pakistan can never be the best of friends. We need not be best friends but surely we can be working allies at least in instances where the mutual benefits are tangible.”
Maroof Raza garnered long and resounding applause as he batted back saying that the idea of India was antithetical to Pakistan. “A multi-ethnic, secular India questions the very idea of Pakistan,” he underlined and added, “There is a deep-rooted anti-Indian virulence in the Pakistan army. Their actions have not been those of a good neighbour.” According to him, "Though there are several smaller nations around India, none suffer from the same identity crisis as Pakistan."
He further pointed out how “after the humiliation of the 1971 war, Pakistan started sponsoring unrest in India, Mumbai has born the brunt of this in 26/11. Not to forget, Kashmir has been a bone of contention for long.” He reminded audiences how the late General Zia ul Haq had admitted, “Without radicalised wahabised Islam, we would be just another second rate India.”
Tharoor, who clearly was the most popular speaker of the day, replied with signature panache punctuated by several rounds of applause. He said he shared the opinions of the proposition, but not the conclusions. While emphasising that he was no peacenik, he lamented how Indo-Pak relations have yo-yoed between being excessively romanticised to extremely hawkish. “It is in India’s self-interest to have peace in Pakistan. We should therefore give the ordinary Pakistanis opportunities in trade, culture, or fashion to form a constituency in Pakistan that will seek better relations with India. We cannot be friends with the Pakistani Army or the generals in Rawalpindi, but it is in our interest to be friends with ordinary people," he said.
When asked by Sanghvi whether he would have taken action against those regional political outfits which held Karan Johar's recent Ae Dil Hai Mushkil ransom, Tharoor said: “While I have no doubt we would, let me assure you no Congress minister would be talking to some extra-constitutional fringe.” His oblique reference to the MNS saw the house cheer and applaud with gusto.
Lively and intense questions from the audience saw both sides bolster their stand later. The motion was defeated by a narrow margin, with the team of Varma and Tharoor carrying the day.
Later, Raza expressed his dismay over the defeat of the motion to those who went to meet him on stage. “I can't believe Mumbai has forgotten one of the worst terror attacks on this city,” he said.
When DNA pointedly asked him, whether the idea of a “multi-ethnic, secular India” which threatens Pakistan was itself being eroded in India, he downplayed it. “Such instances are far and few.”
Tharoor, however, said, “I have always argued how the rise of bigotry and intolerance of minorities gives the hawkish anti-India elements in Pakistan an edge. So it is in our own interest to safeguard our pluralism.”
( According To This UNCONFIRMED Report)
Fomenting Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is absent from the list. 
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