Rajdeep Sardesai, on NDTV, as Shahid Afridi blasts away in the nearby stadium : "The Delhi crowd is cheering as Afridi hits fours and sixes. The popular mood has changed!". He is putting the General's visit in the context of the changed atmosphere of Indo-Pak relations. The point he is making is that it is all friendliness and love between the two countries now, and not in the least at the level of the common people of India and Pakistan. The cheers for Afridi are one more sign of this.
Later in the day, around late afternoon. The General and the PM have left the ground. The Indian batting is wobbling at the knees. The crowd is enraged. Bottles are hurled at a Pakistani fielder by the same crowd. The popular mood has changed once again.
To be fair to Rajdeep, maybe the crowd was genuinely applauding Afridi as a member of a loved neighbour, and the bottle may not mean much. Dravid's and Ganguly's families have got worse treatment in their cities of birth. But again, they might have been cheering out of pure joie de vivre - it is a Sunday morning, the first hour of a Indo-Pak odi, the sun is not that hot, runs are flowing - it promises to be a run-filled day. The crowd would have cheered for a martian if he - or she - had been playing.
Barkha Dutt, covering the joint declaration at 11 am, on the other hand avoided the cliche. She was pressed repeatedly and earnestly by the anchor, Amitabh, on the issue. He seemed to be getting really desperate to know if the people's voice was the cause of all this bonhomie and if the leaders were acknowledging it. But he got no joy from her.
Then there was this fleeting NDTV headline: "Musharraf: Peace not possible without solving issues" - and the core issue, of course, is Kashmir. What, inspite of the people being so well-disposed towards each other? What would Tavleen Singh think?
The headline was probably referring to this. The relevant part here :
Later in the day, around late afternoon. The General and the PM have left the ground. The Indian batting is wobbling at the knees. The crowd is enraged. Bottles are hurled at a Pakistani fielder by the same crowd. The popular mood has changed once again.
To be fair to Rajdeep, maybe the crowd was genuinely applauding Afridi as a member of a loved neighbour, and the bottle may not mean much. Dravid's and Ganguly's families have got worse treatment in their cities of birth. But again, they might have been cheering out of pure joie de vivre - it is a Sunday morning, the first hour of a Indo-Pak odi, the sun is not that hot, runs are flowing - it promises to be a run-filled day. The crowd would have cheered for a martian if he - or she - had been playing.
Barkha Dutt, covering the joint declaration at 11 am, on the other hand avoided the cliche. She was pressed repeatedly and earnestly by the anchor, Amitabh, on the issue. He seemed to be getting really desperate to know if the people's voice was the cause of all this bonhomie and if the leaders were acknowledging it. But he got no joy from her.
Then there was this fleeting NDTV headline: "Musharraf: Peace not possible without solving issues" - and the core issue, of course, is Kashmir. What, inspite of the people being so well-disposed towards each other? What would Tavleen Singh think?
The headline was probably referring to this. The relevant part here :
Musharraf asserted that unless the Kashmir dispute was resolved it can erupt in the future under "different leadership and different environment" in the two countries.
"Right now, we are having a very good relationship with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But nobody is permanent in this world," said Musharraf.
"We have to reflect forward 10 years from now...we have to resolve the issue acceptable to India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir."
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