we can still bank on the smile

“This is indeed a new era in bilateral cooperation between the countries,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar stated on her first trip to India as FM. Let’s be honest. The notion of a ‘new era’ arriving has been reiterated far too many times now – and if these talks go the way they usually do, then we’ll be left waiting for a long, long time for the era that never arrived.
There are hopes that these rounds of Pak-India talks will be different but the language says something else.

"Pak Puts On Its Best Face," noted The Times of India, while mass circulation Hindi newspaper Navbharat Times said India was “sweating over model-like minister.”
So, do we really need a caption here? – AP photo

A new face for India-Pakistan peace talks

 

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AFP
Monday, Jul 25, 2011

NEW DELHI - The foreign ministers of India and Pakistan will hold peace talks in New Delhi on Wednesday overshadowed by triple bomb blasts in Mumbai and intense media interest in Islamabad's new top diplomat.
They will be the first foreign minister-level discussions between the nuclear-armed neighbours and arch-rivals for a year.
The last, in July 2010, saw an initially positive mood soured by mutual recriminations, with each side accusing the other of lacking the sincerity to resume a proper dialogue.
India suspended peace talks after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and getting the process back on track has proved painfully slow, with India insisting Islamabad do more to bring Pakistan-based militants blamed for the attacks to justice.
Analysts expect little in the way of any significant breakthrough at Wednesday's meeting, but interest has been piqued by the recent appointment of Hina Rabbani Khar as Pakistan's top diplomat.
Not only is Khar the Islamic state's first female foreign minister, she is also the youngest. At just 34, she is some 45 years junior to her Indian counterpart S.M. Krishna.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said her appointment would "send positive signals about the soft image of Pakistan" but to the Indian side she remains, as the investigative magazine Tehelka put it, largely "an enigma".
Pakistani political analyst Shafqat Mahmood argued that her age would present no disadvantage in her talks with Krishna, 79.
"There is no doubt that she's young, but she can handle matters and when there are talks between two nations and when there are agreements, it is not down only to individuals," Mahmood told AFP.
The ministerial talks will be preceded by a meeting of the countries' foreign secretaries on Tuesday.
Alexander Neil, an Asia analyst at the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said that levels of distrust between the two countries were still far too high to push the dialogue ahead in any meaningful way.
"Public statements will be made on cooperation against terrorism but in reality there will not be any substantive progress... and the net result, I am sure, is simply that the status quo is maintained," Neil said.
The Indian government has repeatedly argued that non-engagement with Pakistan is simply not an option and will be looking, at the very least, for some confidence-building measures it can announce after the talks.
"The Pakistan project is being taken off life support and it is breathing on its own now," said a senior government source.
There had been concerns that the talks might not happen at all in the wake of the serial blasts on July 13 in India's financial hub Mumbai that killed 20 people.
No group claimed responsibility and the Indian government refrained from speculating, but initial suspicions focused on a home-grown Islamist group with links to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) - blamed for the 2008 attacks.
"India wants action on militants groups like the LeT, but Pakistan is reluctant," said Pakistan analyst and peace activist, A.H. Nayyar.
"Both countries need sincerity and to change their minds about each other. In the present circumstances, I don't expect anything special from these talks. Both countries are just taking symbolic steps," Nayyar said.
Wednesday's meeting will be closely watched overseas, however, especially in the United States which is determined to keep any dialogue - however tentative - alive.
During a visit to India last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was "encouraged" by the resumption of talks that are "so necessary for us to deal with the underlying problem of terrorism" in South Asia.
No restrictions have been placed on the agenda for Wednesday's meeting which is also likely to touch on the core territorial dispute over Kashmir - the trigger for two of the three wars Indian and Pakistan have fought since independence in 1947.
Uday Bhaskar, an expert on strategic and security issues, said that substantive issues would largely be left aside, with both sides focusing more on the simple goal of keeping the dialogue going.
"What is really important is that there is no major breakdown," said Bhaskar who also saw no problem with Khar's relative youth.
"The fact is that she is the foreign minister and should be treated as such," he said.

Football gaining ground in cricket-crazy India

Aayushman Chaturvedi, 16, carries a teammate on his shoulders as he tries to increase his stamina before participating in a game of football. -AP Photo

NEW DELHI: In a country where cricket is so ingrained in the social fabric that it dwarfs every other sport and most other topics of conversation, Aayushman Chaturvedi made a decision that was almost unthinkable for his parents.
He chose football.
And if the mushrooming number of local academies emerging are any indication, Chaturvedi is not the only the Indian schoolboy who dreams of playing football in Europe rather than trying to break into the Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League.
Even former India footballer Anadi Barua, who runs a bustling academy on the outskirts of New Delhi, is surprised by the recent trend.
“It is amazing to see the craze, focus and ambition of youngsters,” Barua said. “I am surprised to see that parents are so happy to see their kids play football and not cricket.”
Football in India lacks glamor and money compared with cricket. Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are celebrities across this country of almost 1.2 billion people and have become multimillionaires through cricket.
Leading cricket players can earn $1 million for a six-week season in the IPL on top of their national or provincial contracts, match fees and endorsements while only the very top players in football’s long-winding I-League can make anywhere near $100,000 per season. Little wonder there’s millions of cricket players around the country and the number of footballers can be measured in the thousands.
As the IPL cricket competition continues to expand and splurge money to enhance its appeal, two major football clubs that were part of the I-League Mahindras and JCT have folded in the last year.
Such was the disparity in 2009 that the Board of Control for Cricket in India felt obliged to give the All India Football Federation a $5 million grant to help keep it afloat.
Yet despite the yawning wealth divide, football remains popular a Nielsen global online survey last year indicated 47 percent of Indians claimed to be football fans.
“To translate love for the game into prospects, it is important to give exposure to young players. To watch European league matches on the television is one thing and playing the game altogether different,” Barua said.
India won gold medals in football at the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games and also finished fourth at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. But the standard of the game slipped due to lack of infrastructure and bad administration.
Things started changing in the new Millennium. India qualified for the 2011 Asian Cup by winning a competition for second-tier nations, and is involved in home-and-away matches against United Arab Emirates over the next week in the second round of Asian qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.
Along with the increasing broadcasts of European football, money is also starting to flow into Indian football.
IMG-Reliance a partnership between IMG Worldwide and Indian company Reliance Industries Ltd. signed a 15-year, $140-million deal last year for all commercial rights to the game in the country, aiming to promote and market football from the grassroots level to the top.
Among Barua’s 150 trainees at the academy in New Delhi’s satellite town of Noida is 16-year-old Aviraj Singh, who was selected for a national schools team to play against a youth team from Premier League giant Arsenal later this year.
Other boys at the academy are going further to get experience against the next generation of Premier League players.
Chaturvedi is one of them. He registered for a shot at a junior trial match at Chelsea and said going to London was like winning the lottery, even if he had to persuade his parents to cover his travel expenses and stay with his grandmother while he was there.
“My parents wanted to push me into cricket since there is more scope for that in India,” the 16-year-old Chaturvedi said.
“But I always loved football and that is what I always watch on television and on Youtube.
“I perused the opportunity through the internet and was thrilled when I got to appear in the under-18 trials.”
Chaturvedi said he hasn’t received a call back or any official feedback from the club, “but I am determined to play professional football some day, be it in Europe or in India.”
He learned a lot about his football shortcomings on his trip to England, so it was a valuable exercise.
“I need to improve my physical fitness and physique,” said Chaturvedi, who is expected to debut in the Delhi league next season. “My game also needs to be faster.”
There’s also a generation of parents who’re bullish about giving their kids the right kind of opportunities.
Roshan Tamang, a 39-year-old media professional, sends his nine-year-old son Rushank to an academy run by Indian star Bhaichung Bhutia. He said he wouldn’t hesitate to pay for tours abroad in a bid to improve his son’s game.
“I played inter-varsity football but did not get the basics right in time,” Tamang said.
“Things are different now and I am sure there will be bustling football leagues in the country some years from now.”
Opinions vary as to why India is suddenly interested again in the so-called world game, but Barua has a few theories.
“Parents want to ensure children are off video games, television and the internet. They see great potential for a child’s physical development in football,” he said. “In fact, I feel technology has contributed in two ways: While their parents got them here to ensure they were not addicted to technology, when kids go back to it in their spare time, they use it to further their knowledge of football.”
But while the game is growing here now, Barua knows that only a solid professional domestic league will help India climb the world football rankings.
“That is where the future has to be,” he said.