Moderator: Harinder Baweja

Panelists:
AK Doval, (Ex Director Intelligence Bureau, India)
Robin Raphel, (Diplomat, Senior Vice President at the National Defense University in Washington)
Manish Tewari, (National Spokesman, Congress, India)
Mushahid Hussain, (Ex Information Minister, Pakistan)
Sir Hilary Synnott, (Consulting Senior Fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies)
Tanvir Ahmad Khan, (Ex Foreign secretary Pakistan)

SESSION NOTE: In a nuclear world, increasingly connected in complex ways, a possible Indo-Pak flashpoint is an obvious area of concern for global players. Western nations – primarily the US and UK – have been involved and interested in Kashmir and Indo-Pak relations for decades. Traditionally, Pakistan has favoured third party mediation on Kashmir, while India has been strongly opposed to it. Yet, third parties have nudged the two neighbours into reconciliation at critical points in the past. Former US President Bill Clinton mediated the withdrawal of Pakistani troops from Kargil in 1999; the two standing agreements between India and Pakistan were brokered by a third party. Yet, the "western factor" in Central Asia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, to name just a few nations, have had very disturbing fallouts. Is the western factor, then, to be shunned or welcomed? Given India's new friendship with the US, how have equations changed?

Moderator: Shoma Chaudhury

Panelists:
Hasan Zaidi, (Filmmaker, Pakistan)
Kamila Shamsie, (Pakistani Author)
Karan Johar, (Indian director, Producer, TV celebrity)
Mohammad Hanif, (Pakistani author)
Naiza Khan, (Pakistani artist)
Prasoon Joshi, (Executive Chairman & Regional Executive Director Asia Pacific, McCann Worldgroup & Lyricist, India)

SESSION NOTE: In the final cut, the texture of relations between human beings and nations is governed by the imagination. How do we think of the "other"? As enemy or friend? Fatal doppleganger or potential ally? Separated twin or bullying big brother? Severed by a bitter cut, and barred for decades from even a glimpse of each other – no phone calls, no visits, no reconciliation – for years India and Pakistan imagined each other only through the prism of Partition. Ranging from sensitive evocation to blatant jingoism, the arts – literature, poetry, films, music – all revolved around that rupture, smoking hatred and pain with the memory of things lost. But the scar of Partition is no longer important for a new generation. And so a new moment presents itself. What new self images can we draw for ourselves? What role can the arts play in shaping new dialogues around India and Pakistan? How can films, music and literature be deployed to dissolve boundaries?

Moderator: Shoma Chaudhury

Panelists:
Lt General (rtd) Asad Durrani, (Ex ISI Chief)
Farooq Abdullah, (Ex Chief Minister, Jammu & Kashmir, India)
Manish Tewari, (National Spokesman, Congress, India)
Mohammad Hanif, (Pakistani author)
William Dalrymple, (Author and Historian)
Swapan Dasgupta, (Political Commentator, India)

SESSION NOTE: In their founding vision, India and Pakistan chose different routes. India made a secular, rainbow society a constitutional cornerstone, whereas Pakistan envisioned itself as an Islamic State. In the 60 years that have passed, has this crucial choice played a seminal role in shaping the two countries? The Muslim orthodoxy, the ISI, Sharia laws -- has all of this set Pakistan at war with its own modernity? How does this affect Pakistan's relationship with the world and India 60 years later? Conversely, what role has religion played in determining India's relationship with itself and its neighbour? First, unvoiced prejudices, then slowly, the rise of the Hindu Right, the state of Muslims in India in general -- what role does all this play in the way our countries relate to each other? Is the role of religion the fundamental difference between the two countries?