Can this novel idea broker peace between India and Pakistan?
The idea of peace between India and Pakistan at the moment is almost unimaginable. Especially with the latest news and discussions on the brutal killing of Lt Ummer Fayaz, a 22-year-old soldier, in Jammu and Kashmir, flashing across TV screens and all over social media. Amid calls for tough action, the question is not if but what kind of retribution the Indian Army is going to seek.
Peace seems to be the last thing on people’s minds, except for a group of politicians, activists, artists, journalists and writers who have signed a resolution pledging their contribution towards improving relations between India and Pakistan and requesting the two governments to do the same.
“We condemn all forms of violence regardless of its objectives,” the resolution states, saying: “Deeply concerned at the current rise in animosity and antagonism between India and Pakistan, we urge both governments and their security establishments to take all steps possible towards improving relations.”
Initiated on May 5, the resolution has more than 500 endorsements so far, from political leaders (including Mani Shankar Aiyar and Omar Abdullah), retired soldiers, writers (including Mohsin Hamid), musicians, journalists, teachers, physicians, students from both sides as well as elsewhere in the region.
It all began when Beena Sarwar, journalist and editor of the Aman ki Asha website, made a comment on an India-Pakistan chat group and on social media about how the timing of the Indian soldiers’ beheadings and the Indian response were predictable.
“Coming as they did right after the Jindal-Sharif meeting. Every time something happens to improve relations, such an incident takes place. India’s reaction falls right in line with what hardliners on either side want. In fact, I think that the predictable state reaction - on both sides - benefits the hate-mongers,” says Sarwar.
The US-based journalist of Pakistani origin suggested that the chat group draft a resolution that would reflect their ideas of peace and have like-minded people across both nations to endorse it.
“I asked one of the group members, Anish Mishra, a young researcher in Singapore who focuses on South Asia and has written for Aman ki Asha, to draft it. He agreed readily and shared a draft the very next day. We worked on the draft and then started sharing it with our contacts on May 5. Within 24 hours, we had some 250 endorsements,” reveals Sarwar.
The resolution is not an online petition or a public signature campaign, but one the group would rather share by word of mouth. “This enables us to keep it credible as one or other of the group members - and also some who are not in the group but have been getting endorsements - personally knows each signatory,” she adds.
Additionally, each signatory is well known or emerging in their own fields. Filmmakers including Mahesh Bhat and Nandita Das were among the first few signatories, joined by actors Swara Bhaskar, Dolly Thakore and Yuki Elias.
“A few people felt they could not endorse the resolution publicly but are supporting it behind the scenes - activists, academics and political leaders. I was telling one such person that we’ve done these statements before but who knows what it actually accomplishes. ‘Please keep doing what you are doing. It’s like throwing a pebble in a pond. It will create ripples and strengthen people,’ was the response,” says Sarwar.
The resolution urges the governments of India and Pakistan to do the following:
1) Develop an institutionalised framework to ensure that continuous and uninterrupted talks between India and Pakistan take place regularly, no matter what. Make dialogue uninterrupted and uninterruptable.
2) Ensure that political leaders, diplomats and civil servants from both countries conduct talks on the sidelines of all international and multilateral forums.
3) Recognise that the Kashmir dispute above all concerns the lives and aspirations of the Kashmiri people, and work to resolve it through uninterrupted dialogue between all parties concerned.
4) Implement the 2003 ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan.
5) Renounce all forms of proxy wars, state-sponsored terrorism, human rights violations, cross-border terrorism, and subversive activities against each other, including through non-state actors or support of separatist movements in each other’s state.
6) Support and encourage all forms of people-to-people contact, and remove visa restrictions and discrimination faced by citizens of both countries. This must be further taken forward to allow visa-free travel between India and Pakistan.
7) Increase trade and economic linkages and cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan.