Column: Nobel for voters & other thoughts

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: President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Prize not for what he has achieved, but for what it is hoped he will achieve. His election has ended Bush’s Imperial Presidency and this has engendered the hope that America will once again work within the framework of multilateralism based on respect for national sovereignty. It remains to be seen, of course, whether these hopes will be realised. The initial signals are not hopeful and paradoxically Obama’s greatest foreign policy challenge today pivots around the question whether to send more troops into Afghanistan or not.

The thought that has crossed my mind is that if hope-more-so-than-achievement has become the barometer for selecting Nobel Peace Prize winners, then the Indian electorate (and the Indian electoral commission) should be nominated. There are after all few more powerful beacons of hope for the millions of disenfranchised around the world than the sight of poor, presumably illiterate Indians queued up outside polling booths waiting to cast their votes for candidates that have time and again disappointed them.

The justification for the nomination should not be the affirmation of the democratic spirit that such a sight conveys, but the hope that the resolve of the Indian voter to exercise their inalienable right to choose generates to those still bound by the shackles of authoritanism. The nomination should include the electoral commission because notwithstanding the malevolent influence of muscle and money power, it has ensured a free and fair vote.

I cannot discern from the statement issued by the Nobel Committee to explain the Obama award whether they were honouring ‘hope’ or ‘achievement’. It could legitimately be the latter because Obama’s successful Presidential campaign did pull America back from the path of militancy adventurism and to that extent it has contributed to peace. It might however be the former as the Obama Presidency cannot take credit for any tangible ‘peace’ achievement. If indeed it is the former, then someone might wish to test the Nobel Committee’s definition of ‘hope’ by proposing the Indian electorate for next year’s award.