Chamliyal Border (Samba): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today called for revival of the reconciliation process between India and Pakistan.
She also expressed surprise over the fact that hostilities between the two countries becomes news but cultural bonhomie fails to catch the attention.
“I wonder if hostilities can become news between the two neighbours, why can’t such cultural bonhomie,” she told reporters here.
Mehbooba joined thousands of devotees from the two countries at the shrine of Baba Chamliyal near the International Border (IB) in Ramgarh sector of Samba district on the occasion of the annual Mela of the mystic saint. MP Jugal Kishore Sharma, state Industries Minister Chander Parkash Ganga and state Tourism Minister Priya Sethi accompanied the Chief Minister.
Mehbooba said given its socio-religious significance, Chamliyal could become the hub of a new movement for reconciliation in the region.
“I hope our good intentions are reciprocated by our neighbour,” she said, emphasising on people-to-people contact between the two countries “to remove mistrust and create a congenial atmosphere for dialogue and reconciliation”. The PDP leader said like “siblings locked in an endless rivalry”, India and Pakistan have bickered for well over six decades.
“Transforming that rivalry into a mature, productive relationship will be difficult but the consequences of continued animosity will be much worse,” said Mehbooba, adding that there is always a possibility of friendship between the two countries as both the cultures share “a fondness for each other”.
She said if there is any “silver lining in the grey clouds of competition”, it is the fact that normalising relations would be a boon for business in both countries.
“It may sound simplistic but building relationships is the key to peace and economic prosperity in the subcontinent in the foreseeable future,” she said, adding that some “measurable amount of friendship” will become unavoidable “very soon”.
She said both the countries stand to gain if bilateral trade, economic and societal relations between the two improve and they are able to resolve their problems gradually.
“This can be possible if they are innovative in their thinking and break out of the stranglehold of one-sided, emotionally charged narrative of history,” she said, adding to begin with there can be friendly exchanges in various fields such as art, environment, culture, youth affairs, sports, information and media.
(With PTI inputs)
