Think South Asian
Foreign Minister Natwar Singh’s visit to Pakistan was an important milestone on the road to a full and lasting peace in South Asia. While the two agreements signed were not substantial in nature and the expected agreement on Siachen did not materialize, the body language was very positive and boded well for the future. While we are still skirting on the core issue of Kashmir, there is need to instill confidence in the ongoing process by showing actual progress in Siachen, Sir Creek, Baghlihar Dam, etc. Natwar Singh is no ordinary diplomat, he has first-hand knowledge of Pakistan, indeed all of South Asia. With his own considerable skills as a negotiator and inherent knowledge of the problems between Pakistan and India, his has been a very positive role in overcoming the obstacles to peace.
People in Pakistan were apprehensive about the BJP’s fall from peoples’ grace in the last elections, while they did not expect change they did apprehend lack of emphasis and commitment. Natwar Singh has been Congress Coalition’s pointman in keeping up the peace momentum. In fact he said it very well at a recent briefing hosted by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Karachi, to quote “I know the roadmap, what I have to watch out for is accidents”. Pakistan is fortunate to have been blessed with an astute top-rank diplomat in Mr. Aziz Khan in Delhi, for its part India has the brilliant and suave Shiv Shankar Menon as its High Commissioner in Pakistan. Very well liked in Pakistan, he has been surfing with confidence through a remarkable and extraordinary period in Indo-Pak relations.
When businessmen host any function for visiting delegations the composition of the guest-list does not matter, the agenda does. In their case the primary concern is always business and economic reasons supercedes everything else, foreign policy taking a backseat. Somebody is interested in caustic soda, another talks about denim cloth, yet another is interested in water coolers, some want pharmaceuticals to be registered, and why not? For each and everyone, his and her own! The businessmen’s vision of foreign policy is that it should be conducted through commerce, and everything flows through the “pipeline” of commerce, and that is a pun. Always the consummate diplomat, His Excellency the Foreign Minister of India was only too happy to oblige, he stayed far away from the realm of external affairs altogether. He must have been happy to get away from the politics of Islamabad, and its ramifications. When this scribe ventured into foreign policy realm by commenting that there is a strong perception within South Asia, particularly Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, that the Pakistan-India dialogue will be confined to a bi-lateral relationship within South Asia in exclusion to everything else, and asked what the two governments would be doing to address this perception, the reply was stock-in-diplomat trade, “I will make a note of it”. And that was the end of that, a sharp, swift dismissal for a subject that is anathema to India, if not yet to Pakistan.
Pakistan-India dialogue is necessary for a lasting peace in South Asia. Without these two countries coming to terms, these will be only tension in the region. However if both Pakistan and India think that settling the problems between them will usher in an era of development and progress they are only partially right. No doubt both the countries have tremendous resources by themselves but there is need for the region to be fully integrated so that the economic and political benefits are distributed in some fair equitable ratio and there is social harmony in all South Asian countries. By leaving population-heavy countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka out of the economic loop, we are only creating a poverty gap that will inculcate conditions of social anarchy, this cannot be contained within artificial borders, the search for economic means will certainly cross international boundaries. Will Pakistan and India build fences a la Israel to keep out the resultant upheaval?
While solving bi-lateral problems are important, and particularly for India which has border with at least four of the South Asian countries and dominates the sea lanes of the two others, when we talk in terms of regional harmony, major countries must assume their responsibility towards the relatively less developed ones. “Economic emancipation of the masses” is the slogan that we must proclaim, and not in rhetoric only but in fact and deed, and all over South Asia. At the moment percentage-wise both India and Pakistan have less people below the poverty line than the others, even then these run into hundreds of millions. Moreover the gap between the haves and the have-nots in these two countries is widening. There is a need to pool all resources and skills, harmonize the infra-structure, dovetailing them wherever for possible reasons of economy so that maximum of the masses can benefit from the pooled availability. This includes food and water, communications, electricity, gas, medical facilities, etc.
One hates to say this, but here is a sense of complacency in India and Pakistan, an ostrich-like attitude that the problems of the other countries of South Asia is not their business, and if they keep their heads down, the problem will simply go away. My fear is that this policy of benign dismissal will harden perceptions in countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, albeit in varying degrees. This will be counter-productive in fostering regional unity, as time passes by this may develop from envy to absolute hatred.
SAARC is given more than lip-service by all the leaders of South Asia, no doubt some real progress has been made in many sectors. However far more is required. After China, South Asia is population-wise the biggest possible economic (and possibly political) unit in the world. It is true that it has many diverse cultures, however South Asians are far more alike than European (or the races in ASEAN countries. If concerted efforts are made now, it is quite possible that before the mid of the 21st century we may be an extremely vibrant economic entity. For that we will not only have to live and domain South Asia but think South Asian in everything that we do. And that is not important only for economic reasons but the most important need of all, a lasting peace for one of the most needy peoples in the world.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment