Peace Now and Forever Campaign: Pakistanis, Indians come together to demand for an end to war
Amid the strikes, counter-strikes and the whole political tension between India and Pakistan, campaigns calling for peace are the need of the hour.
The Peace Now and Forever Campaign, that made its mark felt in the Capital with a signature campaign in Jantar Mantar on Saturday, is one of the drives that is striving for peace in the nation and across the border.
With an objective to address the deteriorating relationship between Pakistan and India and to provide a platform to the common people and civil society to demand peace and condemn war-mongering across the world, Peace Now and Forever brought its act to Delhi.
Networks and organisations in 22 of the 29 states across India and four provinces of Pakistan have come forward to partner with the Peace Now and Forever Campaign.
Saturday's signature campaign saw representatives from the civil society, academics and students putting their names in and expressing their concern regarding the increasing conflict between the two countries.
“Enough of war. We want peace. The regions like Northeast and Kashmir are being continuously subjected to militarised policies, which can never be the solution. These policies have a serious impact on the health of the nation and they do create poverty. We are here to give voice to the voiceless common person who wants peace and condemns all kind of violence.” said filmmaker Tapan Bose who was present at the campaign.
The heavy rain could not stop the candles from being lit in the name of peace, the speeches and the poems. Hum honge kamiyab, hum honge kamiyab ek din – the song rang clear and true as the participants held hands and joined their voices.
But Delhi was not the only city that took part in Saturday's signature campaign, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Ayodhya, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Dehradun, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Ranchi, Shillong, and Vijayawada all joined in.
In Pakistan, the campaign was launched in Karachi, Lahore, Larkana, and Quetta.
Indians and Pakistanis living in Toronto (Canada), New York, and Boston (USA) and London and Birmingham (UK) also initiated the campaign in their cities.
So what exactly is it that the countries are asking for?
The demands
With a simple message – No more violence and war, we want peace – the Pakistanis and Indians have come together to endorse a resolution towards a peaceful subcontinent. And this can only be achieved through certain things they have drawn up in their resolution like –
– Development of institutional framework to ensure continuous and uninterrupted talks between the two countries
– Conduct talks on international and multilateral forums
– Recognise the Kashmir dispute
– Renounce all forms of proxy wars
– Remove restrictions on all forms of people-to-people contact
– Increase trade and economic linkages and cultural exchanged between Indian and Pakistan
This resolution of demands received endorsements from over nine hundred prominent personalities from India and Pakistan including the likes of Gen Talat Masood, Mani Shankar, Omar Abdullah, Mahesh Bhatt, Nandita Das, Jamal Shah, Saba Dewan, Romila Thapar, Naseeruddin Shah and Salman Anees Soz.
The campaign will conclude on 14-15 August 2017 and all the signed documents will be submitted to the Prime Minister of the respective countries.
Mazher Hussain, the executive director of COVA (Confederation of Voluntary Association) who is one of the organisers of the campaign expressed his concerns regarding the ongoing violence in the country and talked about how such campaigns can help build a better nation.
“I condemn the ongoing violence in the country and how people from a particular community are being targeted. With campaigns such as these, we want to stop this cycle of violence across countries. Everybody wants peace and has a right to live a peaceful life,” said Mazher Hussain.
First published: 2 July 2017, 17:37 IST
