| |
| The idea is to promote people-to-people contacts, which will ultimately strengthen the constituency for peace on both sides of the border. |
| |
| This is a refreshingly new bottoms-up approach as opposed to the earlier top-down approach, which focused on high-level summits. |
| |
| The new set of initiatives focus on easier travel across the border, restoration of sporting links, limited access to better healthcare facilities in India, allowing flights over our airspace and so on. However, there is no mention of more liberal trade relations. |
| |
| While the people-to-people contacts are bound to have some positive effects, the vested interest for peace can entrench itself more strongly, if people trade more between themselves. |
| |
| Trade creates more opportunities for more people to earn more and improve their standards of living. Trade helps people specialise in their activities and seek the help of other people to further their markets. |
| |
| People trade because it is in their self-interest to do so and they will resist anything that hurts their self-interest. |
| |
| For example, if Pakistani farmers have greater access to Indian markets, they will produce more cotton and sell in India. |
| |
| They will be strong proponents for peace because any hostilities between the two nations will hurt their incomes. |
| |
| Similarly, if Indian businesses develop the markets in Pakistan and sell regularly there, they will crave for peace so that they can continue to build on the gains they have made through market penetration in their products. |
| |
| It is a mistake to assume that trade is the agenda of only businessmen. Even the employees, financial institutions and other service providers, say like those who provide logistics support, will have an interest in peace and normalcy. |
| |
| It is also a mistake to assume that trade concessions need necessarily be only two-way affairs. The import barriers we place hurts them and us just as import barriers they place hurts them and us. |
| |
| So, even a one-way liberalisation can mean less pain and more gain on both sides of the border. Trade helps build better infrastructure than tax money. |
| |
| Once people start trading, enough money will flow through the trade routes and channels to build better roads and rail-tracks. |
| |
| The interest of the people to increase trade, profits and income will bring in more money for building the infrastructure than the money that the governments can spend out of taxes that they collect. |
| |
| That way, the politicians and bureaucrats will, over a period of time, become less important than the people. |
| |
| The Europeans fought each other for over 500 years. After the Second World War, the yearning for peace took over. Sworn enemies like Germany and France started the process of European integration through freer trade in steel and coal. That led to six-member European Common Market (ECM). |
| |
| The ECM later expanded to nine-member European Economic Community (EEC). That evolved into European Community (EC) and then European Union (EU), which now has 15 members with a definite agenda to integrate 13 more countries. |
| |
| Hopefully, the Indian Government will progressively open up the borders with its neighbours to help freer movement of goods, capital and people. The onus of taking the initiative lies with the bigger and stronger country. |
| |
