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Shared culture 'makes it easy' to talk about Indo-Pak friendship across the border in Punjab

By Sandeep Pandey* 
The Socialist Party (India) recently organized a India Pakistan Peace and Friendship March during 9 to 14 August, 2024 from Mansa to Atari-Wagha border in Amritsar District. Since the Modi government has come to power it has become difficult to cross the border otherwise it would have been a march going inside Pakistan as one was organized in 2005 between Delhi and Multan.
The march this year was on foot the first day, on vehicles the second day and again on foot for the last 3 days before terminating at Jalianwala Bagh in Amritsar on 13 August. On 14 August the marchers, about 30 of them, participated in a India Pakistan peace convention at Khalsa college which was being organized by Hind Pak Dosti Manch for the 29th year consecutively. At midnight on 14-15 August they participated in the candle lighting ceremony at Atari-Wagha border where Pakistani friends come from the other side, a tradition started by late Kuldeep Nayyar 29 years back. Except that this year, probably because of happenings in Bangladesh in which the India government alleges a role of ISI, the activists could not see each other across the border as they were stopped quite a distance away from the zero line on the Indian side.
The objectives of the peace and friendship march were to open the borders allowing people to travel across without the requirement of visa or passport, to make South Asia a nuclear weapons free zone, reduce defence budgets on both sides, to resolve all issues between India and Pakistan bilaterally through dialogue, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir with the consent of people of the region. In addition, a popular demand in Punjab is that the requirement of passport and a fees of $20 to visit the Kartarpur Sahib should be done away with.
While it may be anathema to talk about peace and friendship between India and Pakistan in the rest of the country, in Punjab it is quite natural because of the shared culture across the border. This was best reflected in the response of mothers of Arshad Nadeem and Neeraj Chopra after they wore the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the recent Paris Olympics. Both of them said that the other was their own son. This was a remarkable coincidence of sentiments. Before even the forces which always engage in one-upmanship could have chance at rabble rousing the embers were doused by Punjabi familial sentiments. Remember that Haryana, where Neeraj Chopra comes from, was part of undivided Punjab at the time of partition. Neeraj Chopra’s mother sent Ghewar worth Rs. 2,000 for the participants of India Pakistan Peace Convention ar Khalsa College on 14 August, 2024 to express her solidarity.
This one example also exhibits that because of shared history, geography, religion, language, culture the fraternal feeling in natural. The entire north India speaks a language which can be understood in Pakistan and vice versa. The feeling of enmity has been cultivated by the two States, more precisely the deep States because a certain politics which believes in two nation theory has to be sustained.
The question is why should an artificial thought be sustained? In the beating the retreat evening ceremony at Atari-Wagha a hype is created on both sides so that jingoistic slogans are raised by the assembled people in favour of their respective nations. Students of IIT Gandhinagar have submitted a proposal to the Prime Minister’s office in 2017 that this ceremony could well be converted into a friendship and peace ceremony where citizens of both countries are allowed to mingle with each other for a couple of hours every evening and exchange songs, cuisine, sports, or whatever they feel like. It is a political decision which both countries have to take just like Narendra Modi decided one day on his way back from Afghanistan to descend in Pakistan and participate in a family ceremony of Nawaz Sharif. Until the borders are opened up the two governments must think about this as a concrete confidence building measure.
Narendra Modi advises Russia in the context of war against Ukraine that it is not an age of war. Recently he has told the same thing to Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Ukraine and has advised him to sit down with Vladimir Putin to resolve the outstanding isses. He invested in personal friendship with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping only to be deceived when Chinese Army killed 20 Indian soldiers, a first casualty in a long time, and captured 4000 square kms. of Indian territory which the Indian government has not admitted till date. If he had exhibited the same energy in building peace and friendship with Pakistan much more pleasant results could have been had. For example, as a return gesture to Pakistan opening up Kartarpur corridor for Indian citizens, India could have contemplated opening up a corridor to Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti dargah at Ajmer for the Pakistani citizens. This one decision would have won him laurels in Pakistan like Atal Bihari Vajpayee when the Lahore-Delhi bus service was inaugurated. Additionally there would have been concrete gains for the economy, something which is very dear to Mr. Modi. Business people on two sides are eagerly waiting for trade to open up between the two countries.
It is a pity that India and Pakistan have to play cricket in a third country. Aspiring talented Pakistani youth is being kept away from Bollywood and Indian artists do not get a chance to perform in Pakistan. Students from either country cannot go to the other to study and patients cannot go to get medical treatment. In a globalizing world this arrangement is really absurd.
Coming to the problem of terrorism, for which India blames Pakistan, the biggest roadblock in normalization of relationship between the two countries, Pakistan has suffered more from terrorism than India. Recall terrorists opening gunfire on children in Peshawar school killing 134 children. The problem of terrorism will have to be jointly tackled by the two governments and for this there must be dialogue, which has been completely stopped for the last ten years. What Modi advises to Putin and Zelensky, he should practice it himself. Because of Indian and Pakistani intransigence, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation has also come to a standstill. While India under Modi has promoted BIMSTEC, BRICKS, QUAD, G20 and even attends meetings of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, it has chosen to deliberately ignore SAARC. Question is why? Does SAARC have no role at all? We’re ready to cooperate with far off countries but not with our immediate neighbours. That is why we had no idea of what was cooking in Bangladesh. Nepal has progressively moved away from India as have most other neighbours. It is time we make a significant correction in our foreign policy.
---
*General Secretary, Socialist Party (India)

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