3 minute speech on INDO- PAK PEACE BRIDGES
Answers
Ever since the creation of Pakistan in 1947, India and Pakistan have always been at loggerheads. They fought three open full-scale wars in the years 1948, 1965 and 1971. Later, only a few years ago, there was yet another major fight at Kargil when Pakistan intruders pushed into the India Territory in Kashmir in a big way. In all these wars, the Pak forces had to lick the dust. IN spite of all this, Pakistan continues to harbour ill will against India and has been regularly sending armed and trained infiltrators into India from across the border. Pakistan has been doing all this because it has an eye on Kashmir and it claims and propagates that the Indian occupation of Kashmir is illegal. The accession of Kashmir to India is a fact of history that cannot be denied but it continues to be a bone of contention between the two countries.
When the National Democratic Alliance was in power in New Delhi, the then Prime Minister of India, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiated peace talks with Pakistan to break the impasses. The Indian cricket team was sent to Pakistan to play a series of goodwill matches. This was followed by Prime Minister’s visit to Pakistan in an attempt to clear the dust of misunderstanding between the two countries.
The UPA, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, kept up the momentum of coming closer to the neighbor through different channels. General Musharraf, the President of Pakistan, also reciprocated and said that he had a keen desire to sort out Indo-Pak problems through bilateral meetings. Cricket once again provided an opportunity to the people on both sides of the border to forget their animosity and meet like friends on the playing field. In a cricket series organized in India, thousands of Pakistanis came to India and enjoyed the affectionate hospitality of several hundred India families.