After languishing in prisons, hundreds of fishermen, farmers and others returned to a grand welcome Monday as India and Pakistan carried out their biggest prisoner exchange since the launch of peace talks last year.
For the prisoners who were rightly or wrongly made to pay the price for being an Indian or Pakistani citizen it was indeed a mixture of joy, anger and bewilderment. Some 435 Indian prisoners and 148 Pakistanis were exchanged on Monday.
It is interesting to note that all the prisoners had served out their sentences but had languished in prisons because of the diplomatic hostility between the two countries. Add to this is the sad truth that most of them were farmers and fishermen caught on the wrong side of the border.
The peace gesture should be welcomed and comes ahead of a September 14 meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session, expected to focus on the two countries’ core dispute over Kashmir.
Relations between the two countries have operated mostly in the realm of anti-thesis and contradiction. Although, no two countries in the world have so much in common yet they have been in a state of perpetual cold war. Their hostility is no doubt deep rooted in history but the human tragedy it had caused should not have been allowed to linger and taking with it the goodwill of people on both sides of the border.
The latest gesture should be seen as confidence building measures that will give purpose and direction to the peace process. Such small beginnings and a search for solutions of minor disputes could eventually facilitate the resolution of major intractable problems.
The political leadership in both the country must realize that their futile path of confrontation has deprived people an opportunity for genuine social and economic development. Both have failed to recognize that the real enemy is hunger, poverty, illiteracy. The huge outlay on defense has virtually bled both countries of their critical and limited resources. The decision to go nuclear has added yet another dangerous and costly dimension to the problem.
On the political front both New Delhi and Islamabad needs to give priority in developing and stabilizing mutually beneficial interaction while realistically taking full measure of the obvious political complexities involved. The upcoming summit between Manmohan Singh and Pervez Musharaff in New York should be used as an opportunity to strengthen the peace process from the top.
Simultaneously, both sides must continue gestures such as the one on release of prisoners. This will lead to facilitating cooperation on bigger issues and generate an ambience of goodwill and understanding.
Over the last few years people to people contact has generated a large constituency for peace and these needs to be sustained in order to act as a catalyst in the political process.
