Consider this – the day the award is announced[9th Oct] coincides with bombings in Peshawar[Pakistan], and 49 people have been killed. Is it not ironical! The country of US indulgence and favoured nation continues to be tormented by Taliban and fundamentalists. And US is still giving away goodies to Pakistan and calling them an ally and an imporatant one in the fight against terrorism. But Pakistan is the land that is breeding terrorism!
Moveover, Iraq is still scarred and army has not moved out of it. Iran and North Korea are still on the offensive against US. Afghanistan is still not rid of talibans. Kashmir, Ghaza, Libya and Syria are still surviving under the shadow of the gun. So, where’s the peace that is being talked about?
Obama is still not out of his nappy-pads in the world of politics and hardcore peace brokerage and negotiations. What has he been awarded for? This is totally unacceptable and ridiculous. And has brought down the stature of the award, where every shmuck US Prez can get one for himself, Kissinger included.
The only thing that Obama has done, that is worth of award, is invoking the name of Gandhi. So, the mantra seems, talk Gandhi and you will get one. Another irony here, Dalai Lama spoke and walked the talk on Gandhi, he won; Martin Luther King talked of Gandhian principles, he won; Nelson Mandela was all praise for Gandhi and his philosophy, he won. But Gandhi himself has not won the Nobel Peace Prize.
The reasons for this are multiple, in fact they should be called excuses and not reasons. Gandhi was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947 and the last time in 1948. He might have finally been awarded in 1948, but for his tragic assassination a few days before the nominations closed. Hence, that year it was not awarded to anybody.
The committee did consider awarding him posthumously but they did not know whom to hand it over to. Gandhi neither belonged to any organisation, nor did he leave behind a will or trustee.
So, Gandhi still seems to be the missing Laureate here.
Coming back to Obama, an unworthy choice for Peace Prize, considering the fact that he has not achieved anything yet and not even for his own country. I am sure Obama will not like to be named amongst the other unworthy winners of this award like Kissinger and Arafat. But, he will have to live with this burden of being adorned with too much, too soon.
It’s not difficult to market Gandhi and his philosophies; it’s been done to death by people who have used ‘khadi’, ‘charkha’ meaninglessly and his discourses and speeches have been snipped to make quotable quotes. But then, it’s not easy to market him either for precisely the same reasons.
crazyrals 