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Irrelevance of Saarc
This refers to Sanjaya Baru’s article ‘The irrelevance of Saarc’
(Jan 5). The expectations that were created when Saarc took
birth have been belied. Launched in an era of bi-polarism and
economic protection, it has not been able to make even a semblance
of the impact that it was mandated to do. In the present scenario
where economic necessities define groupings among nations, Saarc
has become a moribund entity. It is more of a platform for political
leaders of the member countries to blabber their way through,
as the member countries are mostly inconsequential in terms
of their economic might. Therefore, in order to increase their
importance in the eyes of the world, as well as among the Saarc
members themselves, they congregate, provide media bites, and
thereafter the event is consigned to the annals of history.
The Saarc member countries have not been able to resolve even
50 per cent of their economic differences as their political
expediencies and ground realities work at cross purposes. When
political compulsions do not allow a symphony to be orchestrated,
it is cacophony that emanates from every succeeding session,
and that is the only reason why Saarc meetings are conducted
in fits and starts. It is high time economics starts to dominate
the Saarc agenda (hopefully from the present summit on). It’s
only then that Saarc would have proved its usefulness.
An example that can serve as a guiding entity for Saarc is the
Asian Clearing Union established in the 1960s with India, Nepal,
Bangladesh, Pakistan and Iran as its member countries. The ACU
is still in vogue and functioning robustly and Prof Ercan Uygur
has waxed eloquent about it after comparing the same kind of
federations formed by other such developing countries in different
parts of the world. The spirit of the ACU needs to be injected
into Saarc if it to become relevant to itself as well as others.
— Nalin Rai, on e-mail
II
This refers to your editorial ‘Promoting Saarcasm’ (Jan 4).
It will be quite unfortunate if India and Pakistan don’t exchange
their views, an action which would help diffuse the prevailing
tension. The member nations must recognise the reality of threat
to India’s geographical integrity posed by terrorism promoted
by Pakistan and they should prevail upon the erring nation to
mend its ways. The region has a commonality of culture and tradition
which needs to be valued and strengthened. Effective cooperation
between member nations can only be built upon the foundations
of mutual trust. Let the member nations hold their heads high
on a global platform instead of becoming puppets in the hands
of the mighty nations.
— B B Goyal, on e-mail
Scrap the parade
This refers to the editorial captioned ‘Celebrating the republic’
(Dec 28). You have correctly summed up the situation being faced
by India at this moment. The need of the hour is to take prudent
steps to bring the derailed economy back on track. We can skip
the celebrations of the Republic Day parade. A lot of money
can thus be saved which can be put to some productive use say,
for the welfare of the families of those soldiers who have lost
their lives. Moreover, the security of the political system
cannot be put at risk. This is to be seen in the light of the
attack on Parliament and the vulnerability of the political
setup to such terrorist attacks.
— Rajiv, on e-mail
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