Speech by Mr. Lalit Mansingh
Dr. LM Sanghvi….Dr Pachuri, Naveena Reddi, Gopinath Menon, distinguished members of audience
Let me start with a confession…the confession of a diplomat…and there are many distinguished diplomats around and I trust they will bear with me…we have ambassador Abid
Hussain, ambassador Singhvi and many others here
The confession is that for a diplomat even in …. old habits die-hard…particularly the habit of skepticism. Diplomats have to face the realities of this world including terrorism, nuclear, chemical, biological weapons, narcotics, hijackings, global pollution and the rest. These problems call for our decisions – they cannot be solved by soft choices derived from religion or idealism.
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It was therefore with my customary caution that I went through the 60 odd pages of Dr. Ikeda’s 2005 peace proposal. At the end I found that my skeptism was largely misplaced.
I was surprised that I was in virtual agreement with Dr. Ikeda’s approach. Here was a man I thought who draws his inspiration from religion and idealism but has both his feet firmly on the ground. Since many of the issues of the peace proposal have already been covered by my distinguished previous speakers.
Let me briefly comment on the four aspects of Dr. Ikeda’s peace proposal.
These I believe are the four concerns of the world today. The first being the importance of dialogue, secondly the reform of the United Nations, then the emergency of global disarmament and finally the need to address the crisis of the environment through an expanded dialogue with nature.
To start with the dialogue…Dr. Singhvi has referred to it. I may just add a few comments. Dialogue is fundamental to diplomacy. When the process of dialogue breaksdown the threat of war emerges. The concept of dialogue is deeply embedded in our culture and civilization.
Remember Lord Krishna, he conducted a dialogue between the Kauravas and Pandavas and it is when the negotiations failed that the Mahabharta war took place. Dr. Ikeda has described how the Buddha dissuaded the then ruler of Magadh from attacking the Republic of Vaijjayanas. Because he said the citizens of that small state believed in the process of discussion and dialogue and so they were spared.
It was the dialogue between the two super powers during the Cold War period, which averted the 3rd World War. The threat to global peace and tranquility today comes from international terrorism and regional conflicts, which continue to smolder. It is therefore very reassuring that the process of dialogue is gaining momentum today.
The Palestinians are sitting down at long last with the Israelis at the negotiation table, so are the Tamil Tigers and the Sinhalas in SriLanka, the North Koreans have been persuaded to get back to the six nation talks. And despite period acts of breakmanship….on both sides Iran and the European Union chief have continued their process of dialogue. Closer home India and Pakistan are in engaged in the peace process which seeks to reverse 6 decades of hostility and war.
Dr. Ikedas focus on dialogue is absolutely on target. As long as there is dialogue there will be no conflict. As long as there is dialogue there will be no conflict; as long as there is dialogue there will be hope for peace.
A second global issue that which Dr. Ikeda has drawn our attention to is the reform of the UN system.
The UN Secretary General appointed a high level panel last year whose report has since been received. The panel concludes that the Security Council needs to be expanded to better reflect the global realities of today.
This disconnect – the members of UN, which was 51 when it was established in 1945, has grown to 191 today. Yet the number of permanent members remain at the original level of 5, except for China there is no representation in the Council for countries of large continents of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
This is an issue of immense importance for India, which has aspirations to join the Security Council as a permanent member. There is an impression today that the United States which has a decisive role in the expansion of the Council has some how been hostile to India’s claim for a seat in the Security Council. I am convinced that this is an unduly pessimistic conclusion.
Let us look at the facts. On the 16th June, Nicholas Burns the Under Secretary of State announced in Washington that the US would indeed like the Security Council to look more like the world of 2005 than the world of 1945. He then specified the criteria, which will guide the US in endorsing candidates. Apart from geographical locations, the guidelines will include size of the population, the strength of the incumbent, contributions to the UN Peace Keeping and commitments to democracy, Non-Proliferation and Counter Terrorism. Does that sound to you like rejection slip? To me it sounds …..like a document drafted in South Block in Delhi.
I firmly believe that the enlargement of the Security Council is inevitable and countries like India, Japan and Germany and may I add countries in Africa will find their rightful place there. Dr. Ikeda’s strong support for UN Reforms underlying the restructuring of the council is greatly appreciated.
The third major issue is nuclear disarmament. The nuclear anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will be observed in a few days from now and these will remind us of the curse of the mushroom cloud. Many will assume that India as a nuclear weapon state will have problems in accepting nuclear disarmament. I think this is erroneous. India was after all one of the first countries to call for a ban on nuclear testing and for a total elimination of nuclear weapons. It was disappointing for India that the 1968 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty…. did not produce genuine disarmament. India refused to join the NPT and infact challenged the monopoly of the nuclear powers by declaring itself as a nuclear weapon state in 1998.
Has India given up its goal of universal nuclear disarmament? No . We will surrender our nuclear weapons if all the other nuclear weapon powers decide to do so. Will India go for further testing of nuclear weapons? The answer again is no. Because we have adequate experience for maintaining a minimum nuclear deterrent. Will India join in an agreement to stop the production of fissile material, which are required for bombs? Definitely yes.
For 30 years India had been ostracized and isolated by the nuclear weapon powers led by the United States. That nuclear apartheid came to an end on July the 18th recently, through a joint agreement reached between the Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh and President George Bush.
Dr. Ikeda’s plea for a new multilateral disarmament process is totally acceptable to us. This infact coincides with what India had been calling for in the past five decades. And finally to appreciate on which Dr. Ikeda has been most passionate through out his life. He describes it as “the primordial encounter between man and nature”. Dr. Ikeda has delved deeply into Buddhist philosophy and has emerged with a remarkable contemporary perspective, which is based on the Lotus Sutra, which the Buddha proclaimed more than 2500 years ago.
More than any other historical figure the Buddha epitomized the symbiotic relationship between man and nature. He received his enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree – the Pipal Tree in the full moon of the month of Baisakh. His birth and death took place again on full moon nights in a forest of flowering Sal trees.
I will not go into the complex issues of global climate change and its impact on the environment. Dr. Pauchauri has covered that with great insight and with great competence. I just want to share a fascinating account of the Buddha’s vision of the future of India, which I came across in some of the Buddhist literature.
Sensing that his nirvana, that his passing away was near Buddha consoled his disciples by assuring them that after him there will be another Buddha and his name will be Maitereya. Maitereya will preach the doctrine in a world, which would have no greed, no evil. It would have people with compassion. And then the Buddha interesting proceeded to describe what India would look like in the times of Maitereya. The ocean he said would lose much of its water, and this is something Dr. Pauchuri can explain to us – why the Buddha said the ocean would be losing its water. The land will be flat everywhere, the soil will be fertile and soft, covered with a fresh covering of grass. The trees would be luxuriant. There will be an abundance of flowers and fruits. That was a beautiful dream of the Buddha – a vision of the future from 2500 years in the past.
Just in case you proceed to celebrate the coming of Maitereya, there is a word of caution. By the Buddha’s calculations this is not likely to happen for another 13000 years.
But there is no cause for despair either the most powerful message I found in Dr. Ikeda’s peace proposal is that you should never lose hope. Let us therefore draw inspiration from this young man of 77, who like the Buddha who inspired you, continues to look at with faith and hope.
Thank you very much. |
