Indian business tycoon talks about his optimism, apprehensions regarding future Pak-India ventures
By Jawwad Rizvi
LAHORE: Threats also exist between Indian and Pakistan while the euphoria of peace is hypothetical – realities must also be kept in mind while moving ahead. This was stated by Executive Vice-Chairman Blue Star Ltd Suneel M Advani in an exclusive interview to The News after conclusion of two-day 2nd Indo-Pak Economic Conference here on Tuesday.
He said that both the countries were moving ahead for peace; however, realities of terrorism existed with other bilateral long-standing issues. To a question about his view regarding investment potentials with existing threats, Advani openly shared his apprehensions by saying just “difficult”.
“Terrorism will be there, and now it would be more active as terrorists donit want peace between India and Pakistan so it may become worse,” he said, adding, “It is difficult but you have to move ahead, we have to decide that we don’t want to go 65 years back,” he observed.
However, sharing his optimism, he quoted the example of Indian Khalistan moment, saying, “In Punjab, we had terrorism 20 years ago with Khalistan moment and finally, it ended as people didnit want it,” he said and added that when peoples would benefit with Indo-Pak peace, terrorism would die itself.
“But it will take few years as it won’t happen overnight – everything takes few years, and when I say it takes a few years, it will be 5 to 10 years. So don’t expect overnight results,” he cleared his point further.
On a question about the Aman Ki Asha initiative, Advani said, “I must not leave my grandchildren with the problems faced by peoples 65 years ago, my parents experienced partition and I was raised in that atmosphere, my children know nothing about the partition but just what they read in history books and the same is situation faced by the children in Pakistan,” he said expressing his belief in Aman Ki Asha initiative. Suneel M Advani said that young generations of Pakistan and India did not want fighting and war all the time.
“We have got to change this, the young people want peace,” he said, hoping that the young generation will make the difference taking the agenda of peace forward. Talking about the cross-border investment, Advani observed that the building factories took time while the trade always started first.
“When trade starts, jobs will be created on both sides and it will be beneficial and then slowly confidence will come back and terrorism will go down and investment and factories and all will follow,” he added. “So the expectations must be at the right level, no need to expect too much,” he asserted.
