| Is there a heaven for dead prime ministers in which rivers of milk and honey flow as mellifluously as their rhetoric did while they were on earth? If so, one can imagine at least two of them – Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Zhou Enlai – both from South Asia, comparing notes as they pass time waiting for the end of eternity. |
| Fifty years ago, they had sat together in 1955 at the now historic conference at Bandung (Indonesia), during which the Non-Aligned movement was launched as an unarmed antidote to superpower supremacy. It was also the scene of a rare collaboration by two neighbouring countries – India and Pakistan – which had joined hands to co-sponsor the conference. Ironically, the final communiqué that they endorsed ‘emphasized the particular significance of the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes’. Today, both aim their arsenal of nuclear warheads at each other. |
| In 1955, the 29 participating countries expressed their intention through prior consultations to further their ‘mutual economic interest’. They reassured the West that the NAM was not ‘intended to form a regional bloc.’ Today, on the fiftieth anniversary of Bandung, SAARC members have formally agreed to grant both Japan and China ‘observer’ status, widening the definition of South Asia to include South East Asia as well. While the modalities of their observer-ship are yet to be determined and will not be known until early next year, the intention is quite clear. After years of opposition to exclude China, SAARC or more specifically India has conceded that China can be kept outside no longer. The Chinese dragon, having thrust its neck into SAARC, will as surely as night follows day follow with the rest of its body. |
| It is a victory of sorts for Pakistan, which has been a persistent advocate of China’s cause. Because of that, perhaps, India had resisted consideration of China's application until this year's conference at Dhaka, where it conceded. In defeat, India has shown magnanimity. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has declared that India, having opposed China's case and in fact also opposed the very concept of SAARC when it was first proposed by President Zia ur Rehman of Bangladesh, now has ‘no reservations’ about either SAARC or about China and Japan being conferred the status of SAARC observers. He may, like his predecessor Pandit Nehru did after the Bandung conference in 1955, rue the day for allowing China into the South Asian circle. [EXTRACT] |
| Published in DAWN 13 Dec. 2005, titled 'Where Does SAARC Go From Here?', and reprinted in WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE & OTHER WRITINGS (2006). |
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