Address by Former Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri at the Asian College of Journalism on January 24, 2011, at Chennai
1 Address by former Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri at The Asian College of Journalism on January 24, 2011, at Chennai India-Pakistan Roller Coaster 2000-2010 Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar, M.P., Mr. N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu Group of Publications, Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal, Mr. Sashi Kumar, Chairman, Asian College of Journalism, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is indeed a great privilege to be asked to speak at this prestigious forum on the evolution of Pakistan-India relations in the first decade of twenty-first century. It gives me particularly great pleasure that my old friend Mani is presiding over this function. Before going into the details of this relationship, taking a look at the nature of our peculiar relationship would be in order. India and Pakistan’s relationship is perhaps of a unique character. In order to understand this strange and complex relationship which arouses the best and the worst of emotions at different times, and has resulted in a strange obsession with each other, we have to delve long into history. From Pakistan’s perspective ever since Partition, a section of the Indian leadership was predicting an early end to this new country. From the very early days, therefore, the Pakistani leadership was determined to do everything in its power to prevent this from happening. This naturally increased animosity between the two countries. The Kashmir dispute served to ensure the continuation of such feelings between the two countries. Both countries were not able to resolve their disputes, and the rift deepened.
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