He was asked if the marriage of Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik would establish peace in the subcontinent. Singh said tens of thousands of inter-marriages have taken place between the people of Sindh and Rajasthan. We need to work to have a situation similar to the one that existed prior to the 1965 war, he said. After the 1965 War, a Berlin Wall was erected between India and Pakistan; it needs to be demolished as soon as possible.
He pointed out that when he was the foreign minister of India, he proposed that there should be no city-wise visa. The constituency of peace needs to be pushed forward and the people of the subcontinent have to play their vital role in this regard, he said.
The Kashmir issue can be resolved only through talks; it was high time that there were good relations between India and Pakistan because peace would not prevail until there were good relations between the two countries, Singh maintained. We need continuous engagement if we want to resolve Kashmir issue. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are unique and we should answer our questions ourselves instead of looking towards the West, he said.
He said that for an author, one's book was like a child and burning a book was like burning a child. Singh also shared his remorse over the extremist reaction caused by his book in India. They should have at least read the book before punishing me, he said.
Prior to the Kargil conflict, Singh and Vajpayee came from Amritsar to Lahore on a bus and the Lahore Declaration was signed; but hardly had the ink of the agreement dried when the Kargil War happened. Don't ask me what you did, he said, adding that Siachen was not a water-related issue and needed to be resolved at the earliest. Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity and he was an Indian for most part of his life, Singh said, adding that the shadows of history were the main stumbling blocks in the peace process in the subcontinent. "Let the people come forward," he remarked.
Delivering a lecture after the press briefing, Singh said that Pakistan, India and Bangladesh lie at the crossroads of a collapsed empire. We are all suffering due to this collapse, you in Pakistan and we in India are paying the price of the collapse of the British Empire, he said. It continues to haunt us because many issues have not been resolved. The Soviet Union collapsed because it did what even Czarist Russia refrained from doing.
The partition of India, Singh said, was not a natural birth; it was a caesarian birth. He said that he was overwhelmed to see the gathering at Mohatta Palace and did not find such gatherings even in London and New York. "I have never addressed such a gathering," he remarked. "Pakistan and India are now realities. May they prosper because in their prosperity lies the prosperity of the entire South Asian region. To search for peace, we have to search for the origins of discord."
"Religion and politics were inter-related for Gandhi; but for Jinnah, they were separate entities," Singh said. "Our past is not our past; our past becomes present. Peace will continue to elude us if we fail to change our positions. We have fought with emotions; I think we should be cooler."
He pointed out that when he was the foreign minister of India, he proposed that there should be no city-wise visa. The constituency of peace needs to be pushed forward and the people of the subcontinent have to play their vital role in this regard, he said.
The Kashmir issue can be resolved only through talks; it was high time that there were good relations between India and Pakistan because peace would not prevail until there were good relations between the two countries, Singh maintained. We need continuous engagement if we want to resolve Kashmir issue. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are unique and we should answer our questions ourselves instead of looking towards the West, he said.
He said that for an author, one's book was like a child and burning a book was like burning a child. Singh also shared his remorse over the extremist reaction caused by his book in India. They should have at least read the book before punishing me, he said.
Prior to the Kargil conflict, Singh and Vajpayee came from Amritsar to Lahore on a bus and the Lahore Declaration was signed; but hardly had the ink of the agreement dried when the Kargil War happened. Don't ask me what you did, he said, adding that Siachen was not a water-related issue and needed to be resolved at the earliest. Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity and he was an Indian for most part of his life, Singh said, adding that the shadows of history were the main stumbling blocks in the peace process in the subcontinent. "Let the people come forward," he remarked.
Delivering a lecture after the press briefing, Singh said that Pakistan, India and Bangladesh lie at the crossroads of a collapsed empire. We are all suffering due to this collapse, you in Pakistan and we in India are paying the price of the collapse of the British Empire, he said. It continues to haunt us because many issues have not been resolved. The Soviet Union collapsed because it did what even Czarist Russia refrained from doing.
The partition of India, Singh said, was not a natural birth; it was a caesarian birth. He said that he was overwhelmed to see the gathering at Mohatta Palace and did not find such gatherings even in London and New York. "I have never addressed such a gathering," he remarked. "Pakistan and India are now realities. May they prosper because in their prosperity lies the prosperity of the entire South Asian region. To search for peace, we have to search for the origins of discord."
"Religion and politics were inter-related for Gandhi; but for Jinnah, they were separate entities," Singh said. "Our past is not our past; our past becomes present. Peace will continue to elude us if we fail to change our positions. We have fought with emotions; I think we should be cooler."
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