Shades of Mistrust

It is true we have done terrible things to each other, nevertheless fraternal fellow-feeling existed just beneath the surface. No corrupt politician, no blood-thirsty bigot, no power-crazed dictator could entirely eliminate the genuine yearning for peace and friendship. Whichever way this summit goes, the tutoring and enlightenment we have received in the last three weeks (courtesy the media) about how the other side lives and feels is priceless. More than any disputed line of control, an iron curtain divides us. We live just a few hundred kilometres apart, yet we know so little of each other. What we do know is largely what our politicians feed us—and what a relentlessly black picture they have painted.

I accept it is easy to romanticise such things. Hawks in Delhi and Islamabad never tire of reminding us that India and Pakistan are not fighting over territory but a precious "idea". Perhaps, but for our sovereign nations to coexist peacefully must one idea be vanquished? The real enemy of India and Pakistan is state-sponsored mistrust created in the main by ensuring that the common citizen in both countries is denied common knowledge. That is one barrier we must destroy immediately.