Misplaced fear over Pak-India trade

[Goodperson]

Yes it is an old news but that does not means that your resentments have ended.


Abhijeet quits reality show in protest
Anil Merani, Hindustan Times
Email Author
Mumbai, July 21, 2008
First Published: 19:54 IST(21/7/2008)
Last Updated: 20:03 IST(21/7/2008)

hmmm his anger is justfied I do recall he was denied visa to Pakistan few years back.

Abhijeet denied permission to perform in Pakistan

At a time when India and Pakistan are engaged in the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus diplomacy, a man with a mellifluous voice is shouting from the rooftops, trying to reach across the border his message of dissent over the "shabby manner" in which Islamabad treats Bollywood personalities.

His grouse may be more against the Musharraf administration, but he has a bone to pick with the Indian Government as well.

After he was denied permission to perform at a hospital fund-raising music concert scheduled to be held at the elite Sindh club at Karachi on April 2, a livid Bollywood singer Abhijeet minces no words when it comes to debunking the Pakistan Government for the "double standards" adopted by it in its on-going culture exchange with India.

"While the Indian Government is more than accommodating to the cultural ambassadors from Pakistan, the Musharraf administration goes out of the way to create road blocks for Indian film personalities visiting Pakistan," Abhijeet said.

Abhijeet goes on to add (rather lambast the Indian Government): "I have still not understood as to how a Pakistani national like Adnan Sami has been allowed to settle in India - all to mint money. In Meera's case, visa regulations are softened to allow her to alight in Delhi instead of Mumbai and participate in the Indo-Pak peace procession spearheaded by Mahesh Bhatt. And in Rahat's case, Mahesh and his brother Mukesh Bhatt boast that they succeeded in obtaining a visa from the Indian Government for the former to sing for their film, within two days. All these can happen only in India and not in Pakistan."

Abhijeet insists that he is not making a case for his being denied permission to perform at a Karachi club. "My fear is that a day will come when Bollywood will be flooded with Pakistani artistes, given the kid-glove attitude adopted by the Indian government towards performers from across the border. And their Indian counterparts like us will be running for assignments in our own film industry," he rues.
http://www.indpride.com/newsflakes.html

 

[Goodperson]

Abhijeets viewpoint since 2003 I think after he was denied visa

'Why should we give Pakistanis a chance?'

Syed Firdaus Ashraf in Mumbai | March 25, 2003 15:41 IST

Pakistani artistes and singers have performed in India for a long time. Abhijeet

Singer Abhijeet recently protested this phenomenon. 'Why should we allow these people into our country to perform when we are not welcome in their country?' he asked in a letter to the Government of India.

Along with bhajan singer Anoop Jalota, ghazal artiste Jagjit and playback singers Kumar Sanu and Jaspinder Narula, Abhijeet asked the government to ban Pakistani artistes from performing in India.

"We don't play cricket because our people are being killed by them. Why should we allow their singers to perform here?" he asks Associate Editor/Chief Correspondent Syed Firdaus Ashraf.

What have you written to the prime minister?

We are seeking the government's help in banning [the entry of ] Pakistani artistes [into India].

I was hurt when I heard about the atrocities Indian artistes face in Pakistan. Our artistes are banned there -- from performing as well as on television.

One can't even attend a wedding without them [Pakistani authorities] being suspicious that you might perform there.

But Pakistani artistes are welcomed in India; they make money. Some even settle down here.

I ask that our government should consider the dignity of our artistes. There are Indian Sufi singers, ghazal singers and pop singers here as well who do not get a chance.

Why should we give Pakistanis a chance?

[Ghazal singer] Jagjit Singh was sent back to India when he wanted to perform in Pakistan. We gave much respect to [playback singer] Noorjehan, felicitated her, but Lataji [Mangeshkar] was denied a visa to Pakistan.

We [Indians] cannot play cricket with them. We have no relations with them. But they seek refuge in our culture.

Lucky Ali performed in Pakistan three years ago. Lataji refused the Pakistan Cricket Board invitation to perform.

She must have refused because she was denied the visa earlier. How can she go there again? It is humiliating.

You tell me, how many Indian singers are shown on Pakistani television? None. Why should our channels show them?

As for Lucky Ali, I don't know whether he has Indian or New Zealand citizenship. Check with him.

Do you listen to Pakistani music?AbhijeetI used to listen to [ghazal artistes] Ghulam Ali and Mehdi Hasan. Now I don't.

They can make money here, but we cannot make money there. Look at Adnan Sami.

What have you got against him?

I met many Pakistanis in Houston, America. They are very angry with Adnan because he never says he is proud to be a Pakistani.

But he is a British citizen.

No. He holds a British passport. If a Pakistani comes [to India] via some other country, does it mean he is not a Pakistani?

Is it professional rivalry speaking?

No way. I have sung 200 hit songs.

At the cost of my career, I am taking on these Pakistani singers. People say I am doing this for publicity. Why?

What publicity do I need? My songs are being played all over on television from morning to evening. I am seen on television channels.

But music is for everyone. These artistes have not harmed anyone.

Let me give you an example of [the late] Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He was a qawwali singer in Pakistan. No one knew him. As soon as he landed in India, we gave him such a rousing welcome, he became world famous.

He then said in an interview, 'I have come [to India] to settle the score.' You understand what this means for India?

What does it mean?

I don't know. But what am I to think when a person from an enemy country says that?

But people enjoy their music.

Who said that? Our music has 100 per cent audience in Pakistan compared to theirs in our country.

Who else has joined this protest with you?

There are many NGOs angry about our artistes being treated badly in Pakistan. When they came to know Adnan Sami and Abida Parveen are Pakistanis, they got very angry.

We call Pakistani singers to perform here. Our heroines dance with them; that is bad.

What does your letter say?

We have four chappatis to eat in our country. Why do we need to share that with our enemy country?

'Why should we give Pakistanis a chance?'

 

[Contrarian]

I don't think the mutual distrust will vanish any time soon (as long as the current crop of politicians are in power) but cross investments are the only thing according to me that will ensure stability because potential economic loss will be the biggest deterrent.

As far as competition is concerned, the Indian model has shown that keeping the economy closed is far more harmful to local industry than anything else. IMO with competition from India, the Pakistani industrial establishment will be a lot more hard pressed to rise up.

I disagree. If we liberalizer our economy too fast, then the local industries will not mature enough to compete with international businesses.

Case in point, if we had liberalized our economy too fast, then companies like Infosys would not have developed, they would have been bought over or gone belly up in the begining. The assured domestic market is what companies require in the initial stages, only then can they go on to compete with the best of the best, and we have proved that with Reliance, Tata, among others.

Liberalization should be done in a phased manner, not like Russia(not a proper example, but you get the point!).

 

[BATMAN]

Why, don't you speak only Arabic and no language that the Indians can understand and vice versa. Didn't you erase that Indian language from your mind yet?

Not practicing what you are preaching!

What indian language are yout talking about?
Why should I speak Arabic only?
What practices are you reffering to, dude?

 

[Vinod2070]

What indian language are yout talking about?
Why should I speak Arabic only?
What practices are you reffering to, dude?

Look at some of your old posts dude.

You claimed that you wanted Pakistanis to speak a language like Arabic so they don't understand Indian languages and movies etc.

I thought you would take the lead and show them the way.

 

[BATMAN]

hmmm his anger is justfied I do recall he was denied visa to Pakistan few years back.

OK, if you believe so than I wonder why people of Pakistan don't think like you!
We even forget about the tortured dead bodies of women and youth comming back from india!

 

[BATMAN]

I disagree. If we liberalizer our economy too fast, then the local industries will not mature enough to compete with international businesses.

Case in point, if we had liberalized our economy too fast, then companies like Infosys would not have developed, they would have been bought over or gone belly up in the begining. The assured domestic market is what companies require in the initial stages, only then can they go on to compete with the best of the best, and we have proved that with Reliance, Tata, among others.

Liberalization should be done in a phased manner, not like Russia(not a proper example, but you get the point!).

I couldn't agree more.

Recent boost of TATA, Reliance and Mital was financed by indian govt. and this is another way to develop local industry. (lets not stretch my last sentence on this thread)

 

[Goodperson]

OK, if you believe so than I wonder why people of Pakistan don't think like you!
We even forget about the tortured dead bodies of women and youth comming back from india!

I was replying to your apprehensions about Abhijeet please do not mix up two unrelated things.

 

[sunny_aus]

Definitely - hence my support for opening up imports from India in select categories - i.e products we import from the rest of the world that could be had for cheaper from India.

Given the huge disparities between India and the smaller South Asian nations, I am not in favor of letting the 'market' purely determine the course of industrial offsets.

It would probably make more sense for the South Asian/Greater Middle East nations to form a common market minus India in the first phase.

I remember in 1992 Dr Manmohan Singh was finance minister of india and government decided to open the market. The opposition parties said, “one East India company captured whole india, what will happen if more than 500 companies will get easy entry to the country”. Continuous protests were done and also results were in front of every one when big Indian brands like Thums Up were undertaken by MNCs. But after few years, slowly slowly Indian companies learnt from them and now they are doing undertakings overseas.

In the same way, I believe when there will be more trade between india and Pakistan, technology of Indian companies will get easily available to Pakistani companies.

Also, export target of india for the current fiscal year is around $200bn which looks easy to achieve even if india doesn’t get this around $2bn extra export opportunity to Pakistan, while if Pakistan may save $1bn to $2bn by low cost Import from india, Pakistan can reduce its trade deficit by around 10%.

Indian companies are paying high cost for technological advancements, by research and foreign contracts. Pakistan would try to perform in the way that within few years, the difference of technology between india and Pakistan may get reduced to no more than 2-3 years (in software and hardware both)

 

[Neo]

I don't think the mutual distrust will vanish any time soon (as long as the current crop of politicians are in power) but cross investments are the only thing according to me that will ensure stability because potential economic loss will be the biggest deterrent.

As far as competition is concerned, the Indian model has shown that keeping the economy closed is far more harmful to local industry than anything else. IMO with competition from India, the Pakistani industrial establishment will be a lot more hard pressed to rise up.

I disagree. If we liberalizer our economy too fast, then the local industries will not mature enough to compete with international businesses.

Case in point, if we had liberalized our economy too fast, then companies like Infosys would not have developed, they would have been bought over or gone belly up in the begining. The assured domestic market is what companies require in the initial stages, only then can they go on to compete with the best of the best, and we have proved that with Reliance, Tata, among others.

Liberalization should be done in a phased manner, not like Russia(not a proper example, but you get the point!).

Malay, I do agree with you on pace of liberalisation but Energon has a valid point. Ingenious development is good for the country, specially when a healthy amount is poured into R & D like its happening in India, keeping the sector closed will harm local industry in terms of lost time and opportunity.

You invested well in developping a basic platform and infrastructure which's needed to absorb imported advanced technology....but you'll only be able to compete at international level thru JV's with global partners. With Indian domestic market becoming more and more expensive every year outsourcing to cheaper and luctrative markets like Pakistan would be beneficiary for both sides. Core business should remain in India, manufacturing in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and exports to the global market.

This formula should result in improved and competitive standard goods and services and enhance trade.

 

[Vinod2070]

^^ It is definitely possible. Though for now, there are many areas within India that could do with more development.

But joint ventures are possible if and when we can get over our mistrusts.

 

[Neo]

Vinod, let me emphesize Energon's remarks again: "... cross investments are the only thing according to me that will ensure stability because potential economic loss will be the biggest deterrent."

There's mistrust and rivallery between China and USA yet they're largest mutual trade partners.

We need vision, true leadership and will power to make it work. South Asia with a population of 1.55 billion could become an economic powerhouse within a few decades if we work together.

 

[Vinod2070]

Agreed. We just have to get over the petty rivalries.

The world is there for us to conquer (not in the military sense). We have the brains, the manpower, the genius, the industrialists and businessmen, the scientists, engineers, raw materials, the markets, nearly everything needed to make this region the MOST HAPPENING place in the world.

All we need as you said: vision and a leadership that does not hinder us. The people will do the rest.

 

[Neo]

Comon man isn't the problem between our countries, adversary continues to survive at official level only.

Pakistan is reaching out, we've allowed FDI from India including private sector...its a good step in the right direction. I certainly hope ypour government will endorse the favor.

 

[Vinod2070]

I say, let a strong private vested interest develop in peace between the countries by way of trade and industry.

Once that happens and you have as strong a peace lobby with resources to buy out politicians as we today have the hate lobby, things will start getting better.

If the biggest industries in the two countries stand to loose billions if there is unrest in the other country, guess what they can do to rein in the hate mongers? A lot.

Something like the the Sino-US example you gave.

The governments just have to get out of the way. To expect them to do something positive, you are not joking?