Daily Times

The news of an Indian and a Pakistani sharing the Nobel Peace Prize 2014 has temporarily put the tension at the border on the back burner. The sharing of the award has come immediately after the fiercest hostilities ever seen since 2003 with every possibility of escalating into a large-scale war. It is estimated that over 20,000 civilians have been displaced on both sides as a result of heavy shelling and firing along the Line of Control (LoC). Both sides have blamed each other for starting the conflict on the LoC. Fortunately, better sense has now prevailed on both the sides and the situation has been deescalated.

The Nobel Peace Prize to both an Indian and a Pakistani augur well for restoring peace in the region. Malala Yousafzai’s peace prize was received with great enthusiasm. Never before has a Pakistani received such accolades in India with both print and electronic media extensively covering this phenomenal achievement. Incidentally, Malala Yousafzai, who is just 17-years-old, is the youngest person ever to win a Nobel Prize. This shows that the people on both the sides are against war and want peace in the region. Immediately after winning the coveted prize, both of them expressed their desire to work for peace. Malala showed immense maturity for her age when she said that she wanted the prime ministers of both India and Pakistan to attend the ceremony scheduled in December 2014.

The head of the Norwegian committee, Mr Thorbjoern, said that the “Nobel committee regards this an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism.” This statement makes one wonder whether the decision to award a Nobel Prize to an Indian and a Pakistani was a political decision, more to facilitate both the countries to end the conflict!

In the past, the Indian leadership has always received flak for being too soft when it came to handling disputes with its neighbours, especially with China and Pakistan. All this changed after Mr Narendra Modi became the prime minister of India with a thumping majority, never seen before in Indian politics. When China’s President Xi Jinping visited India, he received the red carpet treatment, personally being chaperoned by the prime minister. Immediately after the Chinese president arriving in India, Chinese troops entered the Indian territory of Ladakh and destroyed tents on the border. Modi was enraged with this development and told the Chinese president in no uncertain and unequivocal terms that if the Chinese troops would not withdraw, he would be compelled to send Indian troops to counter the Chinese threat. For the first time, an Indian prime minister had shown such courage. It was learnt that the Chinese president immediately defused the tension by asking his troops to withdraw.

Unlike, the earlier prime minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, Mr Modi is a strong and decisive leader and has the courage and ability to take contentious issues head on. At the same time, he wishes to have very good relations with all his neighbours, as he has been elected on a development platform. It must be remembered that Modi invited Mr Sharif to his swearing in ceremony as part of developing better relations with Pakistan. Mr Sharif showed statesmanship by accepting the invitation and visiting India against immense opposition in his country. However, the chance of peace and normalising ties between the two countries appears distant.

Modi is an astute politician who realises that India’s progress is intertwined with development in the neighbourhood. Secondly, both Modi and Sharif realise that war is no longer an option, as over 25 percent of the population in both the countries lives below the poverty line, and the cost of war will have a more telling effect on the poorer section of society, a situation that both countries can ill afford. Moreover, with both India and Pakistan possessing nuclear weapons, any fully blown conflict will bring about untold misery on the people on both sides of the border. The size of a conventional army will no longer determine the fate of any war. Both India and Pakistan should take immediate steps to bring about a lasting solution, acceptable to the people of both countries.

There is a feeling in the Indian defence establishment that, while the democratically elected government in Pakistan wants peace with India, it is the army that is putting a spanner in the peace process. Secondly, the Pakistani army has been accused of funding and training various terrorist organisations as part of a long-term strategy of bleeding India through terror acts. The best way to proceed forward is to involve the army in all peace initiatives so that all stakeholders can work towards finding a lasting solution. This is no easy task but is the only option available to both India and Pakistan to end the conflict. Both countries owe this to their people.

The writer is an independent journalist based in Vadodara, India. His contributions have appeared in both Indian and international newspapers