FOR
HIS PEACE INITIATIVE WITH PAKISTAN
Friday, October 11, 2013: In a
development that has shocked the world community including many in India but
has pleasantly stunned Mr. Manmohan Singh, Mr. Thorbjørn Jagland, Chairman of
the Norwegian Nobel Committee, has announced the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize goes to
the career bureaucrat, who also happens to be India’s Prime Minister, Dr.
Manmohan Singh.
The prime minster’s office at the 7RCR in
Delhi has opened multiple lines of communication to receive the greeting calls
from the ordinary citizens in a bid to cash the announcement for the electoral
mileage at an electorally tough time for the Congress party, the largest party
of the ruling coalition, the United Progressive Alliance. But it’s been hours
and the response has been muted like the muted reaction of the political
opponents of the UPA and the Congress party.
While Manmohan Singh was elated beyond
words and asked us to wait for his worded response, the Congress party said it
was a testimony to what the UPA government has been doing for India.
Excerpts from the Norwegian Nobel
Committee press-release read:
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has
decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013 is to be awarded to Dr. Manmohan
Singh, the prime minister of India, the world’s largest democracy. If a
democracy like India is somehow functional, it is due to the hard-work of the
likes of Dr. Singh. India is a rapidly developing global superpower due to its
large market size and impressive growth rate over the last two decade barring
the last few years. With changing times, it becomes imperative for the country,
an emerging superpower, to play a major role in the global peace-keeping process
and what could be the better beginning than establishing peace at the controversial
India-Pakistan border.
Dr. Singh, for the past 10 years, has
been relentlessly working to maintain peace in one of the world’s most hostile
region, Jammu & Kashmir, the South Asian patch of land claimed and shared
by both the neighbouring countries, India and Pakistan.
In announcing this Peace Prize to Dr.
Singh, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is driven by the similar intent and
sentiments that it had while announcing the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Mr.
Barack Obama, the serving US President and one of the great motivators of the Indian
prime minister.
The decision to award the Peace Prize
to Mr. Obama was based not on his achievements but on the ‘promising hopes’ he had
raised with his journey to become the elected President of the USA, an
inspiring journey then, with his ‘yes, we can’ promise.
Dr. Singh also raises hopes that the
process of building peace in one of the world’s most hostile regions that can
have serious implication for the global stability, Jammu & Kashmir,
continues, even if it means drawing intense criticism back home. In fact, Dr.
Singh’s achievements become even more credible when we see what compromises he
had to make to continue with his peace-initiative with Pakistan.
He had to tolerate the bullying of
Pakistan. His country is still being victimized by the continued acts of
state-sponsored terrorism by Pakistan in many parts of India including Jammu
& Kashmir. Had it been with any other leader, we could never have thought
of the India-Pakistan peace process coming back to the dialogue table so early
and that too, with the continued backstabbing acts of Pakistan, as Dr. Singh
did during the United Nations General Assembly session last month. On this
count, Dr. Singh outdoes even his motivator, Mr. Obama. Recently, Mr. Obama cancelled
summit talk with Mr. Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, after Russia gave
asylum to Mr. Edward Snowden, whom the US alleges of compromising the national
security by leaking classified information.
Also, Dr. Singh had to face intense
criticism in his country when he decided to resume summit dialogue with his Pakistani
counterpart. It was in addition to the problems he was facing on internal
political front owing to the multiple corruption allegations against his
government and a slowing economy. That could have easily weakened anyone’s
resolve to bow to the domestic pressure in the country to not withdraw from any
dialogue with Pakistan at this stage.
But, Dr. Singh showed he was a man of intent.
In spite of criticisms and allegations, he went ahead and held the meeting with
his Pakistani counterpart, Mr. Nawaz Sharif, on the sidelines of the UNGA.
Like his domestic problems, nothing promising
can be said about the India-Pakistan peace initiative spearheaded single-handedly
by Dr. Singh but as mentioned earlier, the decision by the Norwegian Nobel
Committee has been taken keeping in view the prospects of the peace-initiative
and not its outcome. Peace between India and Pakistan, and its economic returns,
would inspire other South Asian countries and hence the world to weigh their
options and policies again. If South Asia could become a peace haven, it would
be a boon for the world. Hosting three hugely populous countries with around
1500 million of population, the region could become a hue market, an economic
powerhouse for the world, bringing prosperity to the world in a globalized
economy.
For 112 years, the Norwegian Nobel
Committee has sought to promote a global environment of peace and prosperity
and the Committee endorses Dr. Singh's efforts to contribute to this
never-ending process.
Oslo, October 11, 2013