Panel wants negative discourse on region driven out of public domain
- The conundrum of South Asian identity, involving the challenges posed by the 1947 Partition, internal politics of each country and meddling by the U.S. and China, could be resolved if the “negative discourse” on the region was driven out of the public domain and the borders were rendered irrelevant, a panel of diplomats, essayists and foreign policy experts said.
- The panel comprising former Ambassador and National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Pakistan's former diplomat Husain Haqqani, Singapore-based economist Prasenjit Basu and Canadian essayist of Nepali descent Manjushree Thapa was in conversation with Suhasini Haidar, Diplomatic Affairs Editor of The Hindu at the Jaipur Literature Festival here.
- The experts said in the JLF session on “South Asia: Walls and Bridges” that the region’s future lay in cooperation among the eight SAARC nations and strengthening of bonds with emphasis on common ethnicity, culture, traditions, languages and religions.
- The panel felt the focus of South Asian discourse needed to shift away from the perception of India's dominance in the region.
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