The phrase doctrine of cold war appeared in the newspapers in terms of Indo-Pak ties. It was in the late 80's and the earlier period of 90's when the famous wall of Berlin was broken and Germany was united.
During that period, Indian politicians came up with the suggestion of Akhand Bharat. The theme behind the concept was that if Germans have realised their mistake why Indian and Pakistani people could not realise the same, that is, the mistake of 1947! One of my relative in India tried to impress me with this concept saying that in India, the Muslims population is many times greater than in Pakistan and if we were united, our position might have been different.
The Indian media's private industry, film industry and television industry, has joined hands with the Indian government as is evident from the recent films and TV dramas on STAR channel, in an effort to erase the cultural differences of the people living on both sides of the borders.
Shockingly in 1996, Mrs Sonia Gandhi said, "There is no need to conquer Pakistan, it has already been conquered by our film industry". No voice of concern was raised on this.
The current strategy is to direct abuse at Pakistan. Hence one courageous hero beats hundreds or even thousands of Pakistanis alone. In some movies, the worst image of Pakistan is portrayed.
Most people, fortunately have stopped seeing such baseless movies and cable operators were reluctant to show such movies.
Through the dish and cable networks, the network of TV channels becomes accessible to the general public.
The Star network programmes aims to make women realise the fact that they are better, and can plan in a much more efficient manner than men.
This is based on the concept that there is always a woman behind a successful man. I normally tell people that the philosopher hasn't tried to investigate an unsuccessful man; otherwise he would come up with the same philosophy for them also.
The philosophy would then be; there is always a woman behind the successfulness and unsuccessfulness of a man.
Second, STAR suggests that one should not teach children about what is right or wrong! Instead, mother nature will automatically teach them, which is against our religion. Lastly, they portray Islamic history in a dubious manner, like Hatim etc.
People combat this problem by a mixture of techniques. Many people are of the opinion that not everything that comes through the TV is bad.
However, because the average child, between 2 and 11 years old, watches over 27 hours of poorly supervised television per week and the only thing that kids do more than watch television is sleep, and because most parents are unaware of the indecent liberties that television takes with our children, hence, we must control this 19 inch shaitan.
TV programmes include stirring documentaries about history, science and nature and excellent dramatisations of classics.
They also include a lot of haram, in terms of violence, sex, and antifamily and anti-Islamic values in cartoons, sitcoms, talk shows and films. It's the parent's job to observe halal and haram on TV programmes and guide their children.
A crude rule of halal and haram on TV can be: If it's haram to do, then it's haram to watch.
Set clear rules for your family on how much TV they can watch, when they can watch and which shows are permitted.
Then stick to your policy no matter how many tears and voices of protest. Allow children to watch a particular programme which you have approved, not just "watch TV." Channel surfing usually means watching the worst of the shows which are on at any given moment. Watch TV with your children.
If you cannot watch TV with them all the time, at least do it occasionally. Talking to your children about the programmes which they watched or you watched together will give you an opportunity to debrief them about the rights and wrongs in that programme.
A small sized TV is better than a larger sized TV. The larger sized TV encourages worse watching habits. A TV, placed in the living room, will help you keep an eye on what is being watched.
A TV in his or her bedroom is the worst thing. It is not that you don't trust them. It is the TV which you don't trust. With a few exceptions, the cable provides more of the bad TV and adult-oriented programming.
Television can affect young children in adverse ways: Aggressive behaviour, difficulty falling asleep, nightmares and an insatiable appetite for advertised products. If your kids are showing signs of this nature, eliminating TV for a week or so may help. TV takes away family time. Poorly managed television wastes opportunities for kids to learn how to relate to other people.
Instead of children being subject to the TV, give them the tool to control the TV. Empower them with technology.
Give them a gift of a video camera. Let them write a script, shoot a video, edit it on their computer, put it back on the VCR or VCD or incorporate it in a multimedia production on the computers.
More than 4,000 studies have proven that the behaviour of children is affected by their TV watching habits. You cannot let false images and wrong ideals distort the future of your children. If you don't control the TV, the TV will control you, your pocket, your children, and your world view.