RajeshA wrote:
From my perspective, this is all useful, only if India is however working to break up Pakistan. If we are not, then it is just marginally useful, because it allows him to counter the Pakistani narrative, where possible. However he also offers the Pakistanis present at the discussion to present their own narratives in the presence of an Indian and all those points which remain not countered end up giving Pakistani viewers the impression that they are indeed true, in which case Shashi ends up helping Pakistani establishment to sell their narrative to the Pakistani people. So it is a mixed bag.
I think a central problem with debating Pakis about anything is that it eventually all leads to partition, TNT etc. Fundamentally, for an Indian, there is no way around this. And that is a quagmire which can go on an on. So far, no Indian has come up with a nuclear-weapon like argument that should settle the partition/TNT issue in one or two concise points and make the Paki stop talking about it. So I think ultimately, an Indian who is interested in influencing paki behavior can chip away from the start in a prolonged process (which may or may not work--witness pak chai ghar
), or in the interest of time, try to gloss over some of these things to stay on message. Challenging each and every delusion, CT, and BS the pakis bring to the table is a thankless task, and risks consuming all of the time, thereby making the whole exercise pointless. Of-course, many of us already assume that it is pointless to talk to pakis, and don't understand why these GOI functionaries insist on it
She is old n fat, and definitely not a virginn.[/quote]
