Friday, December 12, 2003
Vajpayee thinks the unthinkable?
With his eyes firmly on history, Prime Minister Vajpayee has called for a common currency and open borders right across South Asia.
Delivering the keynote address at the first Hindustan Times Leadership Initiative on The Peace Dividend: Progress for India and South Asia, Vajpayee said: "If we can put aside mistrust and dispel unwarranted suspicions" and develop "mutual sensitivity to each others' concerns," these two initiatives were realistically achievable. "Our people, businesses and organizations are waiting to interact more closely with each other. This includes producers and consumers, investors and markets, doctors and patients, artists and audiences, students and universities. They are all part of the supply and demand dynamics of a vast sub-continent," Vajpayee further said.
"They see the unexploited potential in their own neighborhood. They have waited for over a half-century for its fulfillment and are now impatient to move ahead. We can sense this impatience in the outpouring of popular sentiment after our initiatives. We have to respond to this desire by seeking every possible way to banish hostility and promote peace," he added. "If we provide legitimate avenues of free commercial interaction, we can eradicate the black market and underground trade. We could jointly tackle smuggling, drug trafficking, money laundering and other trans-national crimes, which today flourish in our region because of mutual rivalries and inadequate coordination," he said.
"Once we reach that stage, we would not be far from mutual security cooperation and open borders and even a single currency. If this seems unrealistic and utopian, perhaps we are being unnecessarily cynical. Let us remember that the world did not anticipate the sudden end to the Cold War or the collapse of the Berlin Wall. No one thought apartheid South Africa could be transformed bloodlessly into Mandela's rainbow country," he added. Stating that "our most important common war today is against poverty, disease, hunger and underdevelopment," Vajpayee said: "If we in South Asia look back objectively at the experiences of our freedom struggles and of our nation-building, the one stark lesson that stands out is the imperative of forging unity based on our commonalities."
This is a very brave thing for an Indian PM to suggest, leave alone the PM of an ultra-nationalist party. Given the difficulties faced by the EU in far less problematic circumstances, the chances of any such initiatives coming to fruition in South Asia (especially between India and Pakistan) are close to zero. Then again, as Vajpayee suggests, who saw the Berlin Wall collapsing as quickly as it did?
Delivering the keynote address at the first Hindustan Times Leadership Initiative on The Peace Dividend: Progress for India and South Asia, Vajpayee said: "If we can put aside mistrust and dispel unwarranted suspicions" and develop "mutual sensitivity to each others' concerns," these two initiatives were realistically achievable. "Our people, businesses and organizations are waiting to interact more closely with each other. This includes producers and consumers, investors and markets, doctors and patients, artists and audiences, students and universities. They are all part of the supply and demand dynamics of a vast sub-continent," Vajpayee further said.
"They see the unexploited potential in their own neighborhood. They have waited for over a half-century for its fulfillment and are now impatient to move ahead. We can sense this impatience in the outpouring of popular sentiment after our initiatives. We have to respond to this desire by seeking every possible way to banish hostility and promote peace," he added. "If we provide legitimate avenues of free commercial interaction, we can eradicate the black market and underground trade. We could jointly tackle smuggling, drug trafficking, money laundering and other trans-national crimes, which today flourish in our region because of mutual rivalries and inadequate coordination," he said.
"Once we reach that stage, we would not be far from mutual security cooperation and open borders and even a single currency. If this seems unrealistic and utopian, perhaps we are being unnecessarily cynical. Let us remember that the world did not anticipate the sudden end to the Cold War or the collapse of the Berlin Wall. No one thought apartheid South Africa could be transformed bloodlessly into Mandela's rainbow country," he added. Stating that "our most important common war today is against poverty, disease, hunger and underdevelopment," Vajpayee said: "If we in South Asia look back objectively at the experiences of our freedom struggles and of our nation-building, the one stark lesson that stands out is the imperative of forging unity based on our commonalities."
This is a very brave thing for an Indian PM to suggest, leave alone the PM of an ultra-nationalist party. Given the difficulties faced by the EU in far less problematic circumstances, the chances of any such initiatives coming to fruition in South Asia (especially between India and Pakistan) are close to zero. Then again, as Vajpayee suggests, who saw the Berlin Wall collapsing as quickly as it did?
