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| 25/01/2002 |
| THE DEFENCES OF PEACE |
ON THE WITHDRAWAL OF TROOPS BY INDIA AND PAKISTAN, 2002
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| Certain phrases lose their first tartness – phrases such as ‘Turn the other cheek’ or ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself ’. Certain others jolt us back into a new awareness – ‘Let us not negotiate out of fear, but let us not fear to negotiate’. One that needs to be recalled is the commitment made by what remained of the civilized world in November 1945, when UNESCO was formed. The preamble to its constitution (to which both India and Pakistan have bound themselves voluntarily as member states) reads: ‘When wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.’ |
| Could anything be more apposite or a timelier reminder of what the governments of India and Pakistan should be doing now that, instead of going to war, they are retreating behind the defences of peace? |
| Claiming credit for this unexpected victory of reason over rhetoric, there will be as many fathers as there will be tongues and published memoirs. The true credit goes to the two most to blame - Prime Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf – and to the placatory referees including Clayton Powell, Tony Blair, Jiang Zemin and Mrs. Kumaratunga. No one can deny that both Vajpayee and Musharraf have shown rare courage in extraordinary circumstances. It is never easy for any leader to order his people to mobilize for war; it requires even greater moral prowess to reconcile them afterwards to peace, especially when it is a ‘peace without victory’. [EXTRACT] |
Published in DAWN 25 Jan. 2002, and in WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE & OTHER WRITINGS (2006) |
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| 25 January 2002 |
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