Vision of an Alternative Foreign Policy

If Socialist Party (India) would have been in power it would have pursued a completely different foreign policy. It would have not wasted any more time in trying to prove that Pakistan is a patron of terrorism. Narendra Modi has already tried it for the 11 years he has been in power. He has probably visited every country on earth and the prominent ones a number of times. He has left no opportunity to label Pakistan as a source of terrorism. But the world is not convinced of that. United States after suffering a major terrorist attack in 2001 took ten years to track down Osama bin Laden and killed him in Pakistan but it didn’t hold the Pakistani state responsible for it. On the contrary recently US has facilitated a $1 billion loan to Pakistan through IMF. Donald Trump has, while congratulating leaders of both countries for arriving at cease-fire, addressed both of them as great nations. Other important countries like China, Russia and Turkey are also supporting Pakistan. We must introspect why? Is it because they consider Pakistan a victim of terrorism rather then its patron? If we consider the number of killings inside Pakistan by terrorist organizations it far exceed the deaths in India caused by them.

Hence, it was futile to send seven delegations to different parts of the world in trying to make India’s point of view clear. The world already knows it. Socialist Party (India) would have sent a delegation to Pakistan instead or invited one from there to India and initiated a process of dialogue. It would have picked up from where Manmohan Singh government left.

Manmohan Singh had faced a bigger terrorist attack in Mumbai compared with Pahalgam. He was also under pressure, especially from the right wing, to attack Pakistan. However, he resisted the temptation. Any war which would have ensued would have taken toll on lives and properties of common citizens on both sides. Hence he merely suspended diplomatic relations. After a gap of about a year the process of dialogue began. But Manmohan Singh government did not stop the Jodhpur-Karachi rail link, which was revived by him in 2006 after 41 years, and neither did he stop the Samjhauta Express between Delhi and Lahore. Earlier he won accolades when he started the Srinagar Muzaffarabad bus service in 2005 as part of his vision to make Kashmir borderless so that people on two sides of LoC could easily meet. All these train and bus services, including the Delhi Lahore bus service initiated by Atal Behari Vajpayee were suspended after India’s decision to dilute Article 370 applicable to J&K, bifurcate J&K and reduced the status of both J&K and Laddakh to Union Territory in 2019.

Socialist Party (India) would open all possible train and bus links to Pakistan immediately and make it easier for people to travel across the border. In addition it would open a corridor from Pakistan to Ajmer Sharif dargah for pilgrims to be able to travel without visa in a reciprocal gesture to Pakistan having opened Kartarpur Sahib corridor in 2019. This move alone will win tremendous goodwill for India inside Pakistan.

In the long run Socialist Party (India) would revive South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and along with the other countries of the forum create a passport-visa free travel regime across all countries in South Asia. Needless to say all trade restrictions would be removed. If we can double our import-export deficit with China even though China has killed 20 Indian soldiers and captured 4,000 sq. km. of our territory why should we put any restrictions on trade with other countries in the neighbourhood?

Students would be allowed to study in academic institutions, artists will be able to perform, players will be able to play and patients will be able to get treatment across the border freely. South Asia Union would work like a block for the common interest of the people residing in the region.

India and Pakistan by an agreement would give up their nuclear weapons so that South Asia can be declared a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone like five other regions which exist in the world presently – Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Southeast Asia, countries of the South Pacific region and Central Asia in addition to Mangolia which has declared itself to be nuclear weapons free country. The number of such countries all together is over 125. Hence, the majority of the world wants to be nuclear free. India and Pakistan should join this club rather than the aggressor domineering nations. Palestinians have shown how a brave people can take on a nuclear armed bully valiantly.

All countries of South Asia will reduce their defence budgets and armies will be moved away from borders. The fence built either on the India Pakistan border or the India Myanmar border would be dismantled. Ultimately, if China wishes it can join this Union too. When all countries have joined some such regional unions we’ll arrive at the possibility of a world government, a concept envisioned by scholar Rahul Sankrityayan in his book ‘22^nd Century’.

All regional aspirations like in Kashmir, Baluchistan, Nagaland, etc. will be accommodated in the South Asian Union by ensuring these provinces maximum possible autonomy. When the borders between countries would become irrelevant disputed territories like Kashmir will yield to solution easily. The two Punjabs and Bengals on either side of Indian and Pakistani borders may coalesce into cohesive units giving its citizens a richer socio-cultural environment to enjoy. Such a scenario should be desirable for all countries in South Asia because it’ll weaken the forces of religious nationalism which have become a problem for various member countries today. It is sad that present restrictions have shut off all social, cultural, games and sports, educational exchanges preventing citizens of various countries from tremendous opportunities which can be unleashed by merely removing these artificial barriers. It doesn’t really make any sense to prevent people with shared backgrounds from interacting. World has seen how the people on both side of Germany borders, East and West, themselves dismantled the border because of this urge to be one. Unfortunately the political leadership of South Asian countries has demonstrated very little vision to unite their people. But politics of division will last only so long as people allow it. Once people are awakened the governments will have to follow people’s mandate. Socialist Party (India) will work towards unraveling this potential which opens up the possibility of a peaceful and prosperous South Asia and ultimately the world. It has already organized two online meetings of activists and youth from India and Pakistan with such a shared destiny after the Pahalgam attack.

Sandeep Pandey is General Secretary of Socialist Party (India). E-mail: [email protected]