Students offer suggestions to improve ties with Pak

Alisha Priyadarshini, a class 12 student in Odisha, aspires to become an architect but keeps a sharp eye on Indo-Pak relations. So when the Ministry of External Affairs offered an opportunity to express her views on the subject, she suggested a number of measures to improve India’s ties with its neighbours, including through “youth ambassadors”.

The MEA in its bid to reach out to the people in general and the youth in particular had organised an all-India essay competition for the Kendriya Vidyalas earlier this month, the results for which were announced here on Friday in which this 17-year-old-girl from a small town of Bargarh bagged the top prize.

“There were seven topics to choose from but I wrote on this subject because I see the Indo-Pak issue playing out on TV channels and read reports in newspapers, but I fail to understand why we have not been able to reach a cordial state with Pakistan. “And, so I suggested measures that must be taken from both the sides. And, also how soft power like trade, tourism, and films can help better our relationship with perhaps our most important geographic neighbour.

“But, I also believe that young people like us can also play a role in that, and so youth ambassadors would be another way to deal with this issue,” Priyadarshini said.