It did so again this year but its reasoning for the prize had a message that is rather relevant to India today given the terrorist strikes from across the line of control and India’s surgical strikes on terror camps in Pak occupied Kashmir. The Nobel Committee in Oslo announced that this year’s Peace Prize would go to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his ‘resolute efforts’ to end the 52-year conflict that the country has been having with the left-wing rebel group FARC. The conflict, often described as the longest civil war in South America, saw approximately 2.60 lakh people killed and over six million displaced within the country. So, when Colombia signed a peace accord with FARC in late August, ending a ‘civil war’ that had lasted over five decades, it led to celebrations in the country on August 29 it being the first day in over 50 years that the country was at peace.
The surprise was that the Colombian President was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace despite, less than a week prior to the announcement of the prize Colombians, through a poll, had rejected the Peace Accord that was signed with the FARC left wing rebels. The Nobel committee acknowledged this and said that the prize was in recognition of Santos’ ‘resolute efforts’ to end the conflict, and that the poll result was not a ‘No’ to peace or the desire for peace but to a specific peace agreement.
The announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize coincided with a call going out in Goa from Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao asking Catholics to pray for peace in India and the sub-continent. The Archbishop’s call came following a circular from the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of India, of which he is Vice President, asking that October 16 be set aside as a day for Prayer For India.
In his circular Ferrao said peace ‘figured among humanity’s highest values, whether it is seen as an absence of conflict or as an abiding state of harmony and tranquility’. In the case of Colombia, following the rejection of the accord, peace would mean the absence of conflict and in the case of India and Pakistan, where skirmishes have been taking place regularly on the borders, peace would not mean an abiding state of harmony and tranquility, but again, the absence of conflict.
But, is anyone in the two nations making any ‘resolute efforts’ towards the absence of conflict?
As long as there exist organisations such as the LeT and other terrorist groups, there can only be a semblance of very fragile peace between India and Pakistan that can be tattered by just a single bullet. India’s surgical strikes were commended within the country and no nation condemned it. But they drew attacks from across the border, as happened in Baramulla days after India hit back for the Uri attack. The fragile peace was shattered. While surgical strikes may keep the terrorists at bay for a while, it is the long term aim of peace, or perhaps the absence of conflict, that needs to be addressed and the process towards this speeded up.
In a tweet, the new Nobel Peace Prize winner said, “…Together we’ll win the most important award of them all: peace.” Peace of course is the ultimate and most elusive prize. As Colombia works for it, so too should India and if prayers will help then they should be said. For whether it may mean an ‘absence of conflict’ or an ‘abiding state of harmony and tranquility’, India at this moment needs an end to the tension on it borders and the threat of sudden terrorist attacks on it cities.
