India / Pakistan conflict

[PinkFinal]

Interesting interview with Imran Khan.

 

[Rascal]

He is an extremely erudite fella, and makes some great points. The threat of nuclear war is unimaginable and its effects devastating on both countries. He is right about Kashmir, it has to be for the UN to make the case for self determination and his point about standing by the will of the Kashmiri people is a powerful one.

I am not well versed in the regions politics and his constant referral of India as being similar to a fascist state is very worrying and I have no idea if that is accurate or not. Fascism is the last thing any country needs and for a country of over 1 billion people to be categorised as fascist should be sending extremely strong messages to the worlds leaders.

The hatred between the countries is frightening and he does employ a certain amount of whataboutery especially in referring to the minister of Uttar Pradesh when asked about his own countries Islamic cleric. That ratcheting of tensions serves nobody well.

He talks well on Afghanistan, without really offering any solutions, but then he knows he has to back the USA and he cant risk upsetting them for financial reasons and because he needs American support over the Kashmir issue.

Overall it is a very good interview and he comes across as a real statesman, if he is half as a good a statesman as he was a cricketer Pakistan is in good hands.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

I am not well versed in the regions politics and his constant referral of India as being similar to a fascist state is very worrying and I have no idea if that is accurate or not. Fascism is the last thing any country needs and for a country of over 1 billion people to be categorised as fascist should be sending extremely strong messages to the worlds leaders.

The term fascist is used to quickly these days to the point that it's almost lost all meaning. However, he's certainly strongly right-wing nationalist in the same vein as Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. He's seemingly made it his aim to suppress minorities in the country with the help of hardline Hindu nationalists.

For example.

But yeah, India's not a dictatorship, nor has it been militarized in the same way that proper fascist states were. And Pakistan is hardly in a position to start lecturing India on its treatment of people who don't subscribe to the majority religion.

Having said that, if a party with his policies was operating in the UK, it would probably be accurate to describe them as neo-fascist, which is slightly different.

 

[Rascal]

The term fascist is used to quickly these days to the point that it's almost lost all meaning. However, he's certainly strongly right-wing nationalist in the same vein as Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. He's seemingly made it his aim to suppress minorities in the country with the help of hardline Hindu nationalists.

For example.

But yeah, India's not a dictatorship, nor has it been militarized in the same way that proper fascist states were. And Pakistan is hardly in a position to start lecturing India on its treatment of people who don't subscribe to the majority religion.

Having said that, if a party with his policies was operating in the UK, it would probably be accurate to describe them as neo-fascist, which is slightly different.

Thanks for that mate, like I said, its not an area I am well versed in.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

That article seems pretty bad, but when you think about it, it's actually not that different from Windrush. The UK government might have a bit better PR in the way they go about it, but it's still a case of "prove you're here legally even though it's impossible or fuck off."

 

[Rascal]

That article seems pretty bad, but when you think about it, it's actually not that different from Windrush. The UK government might have a bit better PR in the way they go about it, but it's still a case of "prove you're here legally even though it's impossible or fuck off."

It does doesn't it, the people of Assam are stuck between a rock and a hard place at the mercy of the BJP by virtue of being Muslim. I was long under the impression that Assam was a state in its own right obviously it is not.

It appears other nations are having trouble thanks to our Imperialistic history and lack of foresight in drawing arbitrary borders on maps.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

It does doesn't it, the people of Assam are stuck between a rock and a hard place at the mercy of the BJP by virtue of being Muslim. I was long under the impression that Assam was a state in its own right obviously it is not.

It appears other nations are having trouble thanks to our Imperialistic history and lack of foresight in drawing arbitrary borders on maps.

I'm not sure it's quite fair to blame the British for the fact that 72 years after independence, Hindus and Muslims are still struggling to live together in the same country without fairly regular violence, especially when the current regime is deliberately stoking tensions all the time. Every country in the world has minorities. There's no map you could ever draw that would get rid of that, and even if you could, immigration would soon put a stop to that. Also the idea that the way to stop racial tension is to keep everyone separate is an argument that I don't think anyone would ever make about a developed country.

Having said that, the pretty much universal opposition to ethnically, religiously and linguistically distinct regions of countries being given independence on the part of ruling politicians is definitely a problem, whether it's Kashmir, Catalonia or Kurdistan. I think Scotland is the only example in my lifetime of a country actually being offered the opportunity to do so peacefully.

 

[Rascal]

I'm not sure it's quite fair to blame the British for the fact that 72 years after independence, Hindus and Muslims are still struggling to live together in the same country without fairly regular violence, especially when the current regime is deliberately stoking tensions all the time. Every country in the world has minorities. There's no map you could ever draw that would get rid of that, and even if you could, immigration would soon put a stop to that. Also the idea that the way to stop racial tension is to keep everyone separate is an argument that I don't think anyone would ever make about a developed country.

Having said that, the pretty much universal opposition to ethnically, religiously and linguistically distinct regions of countries being given independence on the part of ruling politicians is definitely a problem, whether it's Kashmir, Catalonia or Kurdistan. I think Scotland is the only example in my lifetime of a country actually being offered the opportunity to do so peacefully.

That's fair enough mate, I just happen to hold a pretty dim view of our imperialistic history. Then I hold a pretty dim view of all nations imperialistic past, not just ours. I agree it is impossible to draw lines on a map that could change things. The Czechs and Slovaks managed it quite well so there is hope mate.

 

[PinkFinal]

 

[goalmole]