Don’t transfer hatred to children, says Indian peace activist

Islamabad

Chanchal Manohar Singh, journalist and president of the Society for Peace, Chandigarh, India, has said that we must eliminate phorhas (acne) of our (distorted) history and not transplant hate material to our children in the two countries.

He was addressing the teachers of Ali Trust College, Khanna, on ‘Peace in South Asia’ here the other day.

He said that we should go for peace, and not indulge in war mongering and waste resources needed to heal the wounds of hunger, illiteracy and disease in the subcontinent. He lamented that India and Pakistan keep the difference lingering on and leaders in both countries use this rhetoric during elections which creates commotion in the region.

He said that there are 220 million Muslims in India. He said that they live good life but regretted that riots are also there. He said that Muslims are exempted from fees in government schools in India.

Chanchal Singh said that in his native Punjab, there is no communal issue. As for as Hindus are concerned, he said that they cannot exclude their subjugation under Muslims. He said that Hindus do not reconcile that those rulers were not Muslims of this area but came from Central Asia and Arab territories.

He said that we should see positive things also. He said that trade worth $16b takes place between the two countries through Mumbai and Karachi via Dubai. He said that direct trade from Wagha, Rajasthan and Kashmir would be much cheaper and quick.

He also visited the college and offered an ATC team to visit Chandigarh and participate in a festival of Sufi music there in winter. He said that interaction between students and teachers of the two countries will go a long way in promoting peace between the two countries.

Rafila Naz, director (education) at the  Ali Trust Pakistan, and Abdul Wahid, principal of the college, thanked Mr Chanchal for the visit and assured him that not only a team of ATC will visit Chandigarh but would also invite Chandigarh schoolchildren to attend a 'sufi' music programme in Islamabad.