An Indian in Oslo

India's place is with the free world at Nobel ceremony

China may not like it, and the incident may poison the atmosphere on the eve of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s visit to New Delhi, but India has no other option than to do what it has always done, send a representative to attend the annual Nobel prize awards ceremonies in Oslo, including the one for peace. China’s anger at a political dissident, Liu Xiaobo, a literary critic, writer, professor and human rights activist, who now languishes in jail for his views, getting the Nobel peace prize is understandable. The juries that have selected individuals and institutions for this award have not always covered themselves with glory, nor are they non-partisan juries. Many questionable awards have been doled out over the years. However, to point to the subjectivity of the Nobel peace prize, and the politics of the selection of awardees, as a reason for India staying away from the ceremony at this stage would be entirely inappropriate. No one will see an Indian boycott as a principled one, based on genuine reservations about the objectivity of the selection process for the prize. It will be universally seen as cowering to an assertive China.

Worse, India would be in the company of mostly non-democratic countries or largely token democracies like Afghanistan, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sudan, Tunisia, Venezuela, Vietnam and Ukraine. Many of them are India’s friends, and for good reasons. The Philippines is more of a democracy than most of the others in this list and so is a surprising dissident on this issue. Yet, on the issue of freedom of expression and dissent, India should not be seen on the side of those boycotting a ceremony to award a political dissident. Rather, India must sit with other open societies and democracies that value dissent and allow its free expression.

It is also significant that the Nobel to Mr Liu is the first one to a Chinese citizen living in China. In all, eleven persons of Chinese origin have so far been awarded a Nobel prize, in various categories, but none was a resident of the People’s Republic when awarded. Most of them are, in fact, citizens of other countries, including Taiwan, and one has lived in India for a long time — the Dalai Lama! Mr Liu is the first Chinese from mainland China to be receiving a Nobel. India has the proud record of many distinguished Indians receiving the Nobel, including Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, C V Raman, Mother Teresa (an Indian for all purposes) and Amartya Sen. Three scientists of Indian origin living abroad — S Chandrashekhar, Hargobind Khurana and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan — have also won the Nobel. Many Indians may well regard the Nobel as a western plot, and it may well be one, yet the prize has acquired an unparalleled global stature and India would look foolish boycotting the ceremony to please China. India’s representative must attend the Nobel ceremony.