India pushes forwards idea of South Asian parliament

Pushing forward the idea of a South Asian parliament aimed at bringing the nations in the region closer, India on Sunday pledged to carry forward the theme of regional integration and connectivity by implementing concrete projects and upgrading regional cooperation.

The two major Indian politicians while praising the efforts South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), regional media watchdog have been initiating to establish a South Asian parliament in line with the parliament of European Union, Pranab Mukherjee and Yashwant Singh called upon the parliamentarians to persuade their respective governments to achieve this much cherished goal.

As the two-day Parliamentary Forum commemorating the 150th year of the first War of Independence organised by SAFMA drew to a close in the historic city of Shimla, the Indian External Affairs Minster Pranab Mukherjee addressed its heavily attended concluding session.

In a 15 minute speech peppered with references to the historic importance of this Himalayan town, the minister referred to the shared past history of the region, its common destiny and the need to build on the emerging fraternity of the South Asian region.

Speaking to a packed audience consisting of 163 delegates, including 83 Members of Parliament and leading members of the media community representing eight SAARC countries, Mr Mukherjee pointed out that as the largest country in South Asia India was conscious of a greater regional responsibility. India, he emphasised, was ready to assume symmetrical responsibilities, including opening up her markets without insisting on reciprocity. This role was made clear in the 14th SAARC summit that took place in April in Delhi when the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh announced duty-free access to India’s markets to the LDCs in SAARC from this year onwards. At the same forum the Prime Minister also announced the unilateral liberalisation of visas, especially for students, teachers, professionals, journalists and patients and called for the doubling of tourists from the region over the next five years.

As chair of SAARC this year, the minister said, India had a greater role to play in realising the full potential of South Asia. Home to 1.5 billion people and one fifth of world’s humanity, this region could emerge soon as a major powerhouse of economic creativity and enterprise. An interconnected South Asia allowing for free flow of people, goods, services and ideas would catapult it up the global economic ladder. He said that India looked at the SAARC process as stimulus to strengthen cross border linkages through initiatives such as SAFTA and the SAARC Development Fund. The region was already on a cusp of a major transformation: For the first time in 350 years, the centre of gravity of the global economy was indicating a shift from Europe and North America to Asia.

“In order to achieve the theme of regional integration and connectivity, work on the establishment of South Asian University had begun which would ultimately web the South Asian community further by bringing together future younger generation of students in pursuit of quality education,” Mukherjee said.

Unfolding future course of action to promote the regional body the External Affairs Minister informed the gathering that India would also host the first SAARC Cultural Festival in November which would bring together artists and cultural personalities reflecting the richness, diversity and at the same time the homogeneity of South Asia. A SAARC Museum of Textiles and Handicrafts was going to be inaugurated this year with its first exhibition thematically detailing the ‘Textile Traditions of South Asia.’ Together with the Fashion Design Council of India, a SAARC Fashion Festival was going to be organised showcasing the rich textile traditions of this area.

In his concluding address in the conference former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha impressed upon the parliamentarians that it is in the collective interest of the people of South Asia that the governments of the region work together to strengthen each other security rather than undermining it.

“Our differences wherever they exist, must be resolved amicably and peacefully and not by destabilizing and destroying each other. People are talking of making line of control in Jammu and Kashmir irrelevant. Such a peace-meal approach will not work. India and Pakistan, indeed all of us, will have to strive to make our borders irrelevant before making the LoC irrelevant,” said Sinha.

This theme of unity, peace and integrity ran through out the two-day parliamentary conference. The thrust of the declaration that the conference unanimously adopted on the second day, which will be released on Monday, was comprehensive and brought in its ambit issues relating to the eight-member SAARC countries.

There were differences between India and Pakistan over the inclusion of Kashmir in the declaration, and later between Pakistani delegates over the internal affairs of their country. There were stormy scenes, heated debates but at the end of the day the assembled parliamentarians rose to the occasion and unanimously adopted the Shimla Declaration.

The conference also adopted a resolution on first war of independence in 1857 where it noted with regret that the official records of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan the martyrs of the 1857 war are still described as traitors. They would ask their government to correct the fallacy of history and rewrite the 1857 history from the South Asian perspective.