Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met in New York before the 63rd Sessions of UN General Assembly and agreed to improve peace between the two nations. For years governments have come and gone on both sides of the border promising peace between the two nations, but still today all we have to show for talks is an “on-off” bus and train service. Both sides have been fighting for so long now that most have forgotten what they are fighting about.

Kashmir comes up as the biggest issue, but that is a pretty bad excuse from both nations. If every other border state was split between India and Pakistan, than why can’t both nations just agree to keep control of the areas of Kashmir as they currently control? Just look at the number of people who lost everything because of the partition of Punjab and to a lesser extent Gujarat. There are people living Gujarat and Rajasthan who have relatives only a few miles from each other yet can’t meet each other. What is so special about Kashmir that both nations have sacrificed the lives of thousands of men and women, spent billions of dollars fighting each other, and have propagated so much hatred towards each other? China has been expanding itself into Indian territory for years yet India and China are friendly with each. India should be more concerned with China since if a war ever broke out they have the capacity to do much more damage to India than Pakistan. It almost seems like the conflict between India and Pakistan isn’t Kashmir or anything else of importance but just a sibling rivalry gone bad, a case where both nations wish to be better than the other.

India and Pakistan should agree look beyond Kashmir and implement an open borders policy where people from both nations could travel and do business between the nations with limited supervision, such as the system that Canada and the US have. This will allow people to better integrate with each and allow for greater understanding between each other.

Open trade between India and Pakistan will help the people of both nations, since both nations produce many things that the other could use. Earlier this year Pakistan was in need of wheat and India had excess wheat which it could have sold to Pakistan, but didn’t due to the lack of a proper trade agreement. Tourism is another industry that could benefit, how many places are in both nations which the people of the other want to visit, just the religious and historical tourists could mean millions of additional revenue for both nations. Many major foreign brands manufacture their products in Pakistan and India which are first exported out of both nations to a third nation than later imported into both nations, adding a premium to the price. With open trade these products could be exported and imported directly between India and Pakistan. There are many more benefits of peace between both nations but just like always pessimistic people and their policies will be implemented.
The biggest reason given by both India and Pakistan to not come together is security concerns. How much worse could security get? We just had major bombings in the capitals of both nations within days of each other. It’s time for both nations to grow-up and put this silly rivalry, behind us.

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