"The common man in Pakistan has deep affections towards Indians" : Sharad Pawar

[Abdullah719]

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar today stated that those who keep asking people to go to Pakistan have neither understood Pakistan nor India.

"The common man in Pakistan has deep affections towards Indians," Pawar said.

Pawar was speaking at a book launch function organised in Pune. Along with the NCP leader, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana president Raju Shetti and Congress MP Rajiv Satav also shared the dais at the function.

During his speech, Pawar criticised ruling BJP for its style of functioning. He said, "If any person from minority criticises the government, they ask him to go to Pakistan but do they really know Pakistan. Being the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), I visited Pakistan and during my every visit I found that the common Pakistani people have a lot of affection for Indians."

"Before Partition, Pakistan was a part of India and the people staying there were Indians only. After the partition, some went to Pakistan while some came to India. There are still some people in Pakistan whose relatives are in India but due to the political situation, they can not come to India. However, they still shower love for Indians. Here in India those who keep advising people (speaking against the government) to go to Pakistan have neither have understood Pakistan nor India," he said.

Criticising the central government's policies, Pawar said, "While announcing demonetisation, the government had stated that it will end terrorism, Naxalism in the country. On the contrary to government's claim, the present situation in Jammu and Kashmir is very tensed."

Referring the recent report of National Register of Citizens on Assam, Pawar said, "The names of 40 lakh people are missing from the report. Bangladesh has already stated that they are not Bangladeshi people. In this case, the bigger question is that where will we send these people."

"I am not saying that India has to take the responsibility of all those people. However, the government must initiate talks at the international level to find a solution on this issue," Pawar said.

Speaking about the ongoing Maratha quota agitation in Maharashtra, Pawar said, "The government should take a decision on giving reservation but it should not touch the quota of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). The government should rope in respected people whom the agitators will listen. Instead, I feel that the government is trying to isolate the agitators for its personal gains."

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/repor...stood-pakistan-and-india-sharad-pawar-2645692

 

[TheLastGreatMan]

Sharad Pawar = 10 X Nawaz Shariff in corruption.

 

[blackanhyellow]

By Indians he means North Indians.

A large majority Pakistani population is punjabi.

Just like how our Pashtuns share commonalities with their Pashtun brethren across the Afghan border, our Punjabis also share commonalities with Punjabis in India.

The other thing is Bollywood, music and sports. Pakistanis love Bollywood, they play mostly Indian music at their weddings. Of course sports as well as players like Dhoni and Kohli are admired greatly in Pakistan.

The love really stops there though.

I dont think Pakistanis have any affections towards the rest of Indian society at large, we just think of them as normal people as we do with Bangladeshis, Nepalis, Sri Lankans, and other nations in the neighborhood etc..

 

[Stewie]

He is mistaken.. we like indian cricketers and some filmstars but nobody likes much else about India. In fact the animosity runs pretty deep if you ask me..

 

[enkidu_]

By Indians he means North Indians.

A large majority Pakistani population is punjabi.

"North Indians" is a geographic, not ethnic term. It's like saying "South Europeans" and lumping together Italians/Spaniards/Greeks/... no one says "I'm southern Euro" but "I'm Italian, etc" the same way North Indian isn't an ethnic term.

Out of all Indians, Pak only has one ethnic group in common : Punjabis. They make 60% of our pop and 2-3% of India's (roughly). In other words, 99% of Pak has nothing to do with 97-98% of India, in ethnic terms. And let's even go into details on how, unlike Pak and Afg Pashtuns who share tribes, Pak and Indian Punjabis don't, for the simple reason that a lot of tribes fully (or nearly fully) converted to Islam, so ended up in Pak Punjab with no counterparts in Indian Punjab (like the Arains ; think of Wasim Akram, etc). Only shared tribes (or clans) in *large* proportions are Jatts and Khatris.

That's it.

For Urdu speakers it's also blown out of proportion : you hear a lot of them being "UPite", but "UPite" is not an ethnic group. UP is India's largest state and it has ethnic diversity. And keep in mind that, for instance, the "Rohilla Pathans" of UP in their majority moved to Karachi (actress Mahira Khan belongs to such group I think) - how many "Rohilla Pathans" in their pre-Partition days considered themselves "UPite" as ethnic identity ? The same for the Syed's, Farooqi's, etc all these populations made the bulk of Karachi's "Muhajirs", and always felt different from their Hindu neighbors. Let's not bring the few Gujurati's, Bengali's, ... because they're a minority in a minority, and that'd be like establishing ethnic ties with the UK because of its Brit Pak population (in fact perhaps proportionally even more important than any "Indian like" ethnic group in Pak.)

That's also why the South Koreans/North Koreans analogy doesn't work.

 

[hafeezrocks]

I hope the fascination with Bollywood ends too. Some Pakistanis love Bollywood more than the Indians do.

 

[Syed1]

Mr. Pawar is very misinformed. We like Bollywood and people like Kohli and Dhoni that's about it. Heck places in South India sound like far away distant lands with nothing in common with us. Most Pakistani won't even know if you tell them that large swathes of India don't even speak Hindi (that was a MASSIVE shock for me when my Indian friend told me)

 

[enkidu_]

I hope the fascination with Bollywood ends too. Some Pakistanis love Bollywood more than the Indians do.

It's because Bollywood is full of "Pathans" and Punjabi-Khatris (all names like Kapoor's, Anand's, Chopra's, Dhawan's, Kohli's, ...) who had their roots in West/today's Pak Punjab.

Khatris, even when Hindus (lots of them are Sikhs or Muslims, think of the Saigol business family in Pak), were the best partners of the Mughals in Punjab : as administrators, commercial intermediaries, etc and Bollywood basically is nothing but a perpetuation of Mughal cultural imperialism.

Ironically the other major Hindu group which collaborated freely with the Mughals, but in UP, were the Kayastha's, and Bachchan's father comes from there (his mother being a Punjabi-Khatri).

 

[TheLastGreatMan]

You guys fell for Pawar's politics..this guy is a seasoned politician with 50+ years of experience )

Nawaz shariffs corruption is nothing in front of this guy.

 

[Pakistanian]

I hope the fascination with Bollywood ends too. Some Pakistanis love Bollywood more than the Indians do.

it's cause bollywood uses Urdu/hindi, otherwise Pakistanis know nothing about Tamil, Telugu, or Bengali movies.

 

[TheLastGreatMan]

I hope the fascination with Bollywood ends too. Some Pakistanis love Bollywood more than the Indians do.

Why you force your belief on other people?

 

[boomboomcheema]

You guys fell for Pawar's politics..this guy is a seasoned politician with 50+ years of experience )

Nawaz shariffs corruption is nothing in front of this guy.

What significant post has he ever held in Indian Politics?

 

[TheLastGreatMan]

What significant post has he ever held in Indian Politics?

Chief Minister of Maharashtra (Mumbai is capital) for multiple times...Was a Minister in Central Government multiple times..

By the way he is also an ex President of ICC.

 

[cricketjoshila]

He is mistaken.. we like indian cricketers and some filmstars but nobody likes much else about India. In fact the animosity runs pretty deep if you ask me..

Yea agreed.

 

[cricketjoshila]

You guys fell for Pawar's politics..this guy is a seasoned politician with 50+ years of experience )

Nawaz shariffs corruption is nothing in front of this guy.

Other than Gandhi family he is the most corrupt politician. He changes colour like a chameleon.

 

[Rayyman]

Ofc there is a brotherhood between us. But that in no way means there is a deep affection.

 

[ManFan]

The animosity was never made aware to me until someone spoke of it directly.

Both sides of the border fall victim to propaganda and false narratives pushed by politically motivated media sensationalism.

 

[PakLFC]

I am a common man who has no affection for India at all neither does anyone in my family. I would say that most Indian's have a soft spot for Pakistanis then the other way round. Gave up Bollywood many years back as well.

 

[Third_Umpire]

Most Pakistanis are probably indifferent about India, just like most Indians are probably indifferent about Pakistanis. A small percentage on both sides probably have a favorable impression of the other, and a small percentage probably hate each other other.

For the most part, people have other things to worry about, like their own lives and their families, than to think about India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.