MADRAS, India -- India's new prime minister, Manmohan Singh, welcomed his Pakistani counterpart, Shaukat Aziz, in New Delhi the other day with a classic line: "Who could say 20 years ago that the Berlin Wall would be a thing of the past. My hope and prayer is that we can do something similar in the Indian subcontinent. I earnestly and sincerely will work to that end."
Singh was referring to the half century of conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, a state that lies divided between them.
Without going into the merits and demerits of India and Pakistan's claim over Kashmir, it must be said that both are guilty of furthering the discord. For nearly a decade and a half, Pakistan trained militants and sent them into Indian Kashmir to wage a proxy war that not only led to the deaths and maiming of thousands but ruined the economy.