What stokes the India-Pakistan tensions

Just one week ago, the world was reeling from the terror attacks in Mumbai. Almost immediately came the predictable blame game between India and Pakistan. This Pakistani newspaper editor says a lot of people here felt sympathy and empathy for the people in Mumbai because terror attacks are also common in Pakistan, but it was also a sorry sight to see the blame game start so quickly. Pakistanis and Indians blame some India’s crowded media for starting the blame game. today there are more than 60 news agencies in India, most which have been launched within the last three years when India’s economy boomed. But this competition can sometimes produce reckless reporting. This reporter says TV played a big role in the Mumbai attacks, and the attack and its entire fallout has been widely covered. Then Pakistan’s media became hysterically anti-Indian as a response to the blame game. This analyst says the people of India and Pakistan for the most part eat the same food, sing the same songs, and read the same poets and that Indian politicians are often guilty of stoking tensions for their own benefit. He says India’s democracy may be messy and imperfect but it is strong and resilient and there’s no such hope in Pakistan because the army is so powerful and the system is more feudal. This he believes keep Pakistan eternally unstable but that kind of statement irks many Pakistanis who believes if Indians were a little more sensible, than they could see Pakistan as a good partner. Today the blame game over Mumbai continued.