If Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf succeed in settling the Kashmir issue and bring peace to the region, they will deserve the Nobel Peace Prize, a leading American columnist said today. ‘‘Shrewdness’’ on the Indian side and ‘‘desperation’’ in Paksitan have come together to produce a potential Nobel Peace Prize for ‘‘the two uncommon leaders,’’ The Washington Post’s Jim Hoagland wrote in his column.On pressures on Musharraf, he said: ‘‘Unsuccessful error campaigns tend to consume themselves. Cutting off outside support and finance turns the bombers and killers against their one time sponsors and then each other. Their movements split and suffocate — if those who have resisted them know how to seize the moment to stop the conflict when it comes.’’ ‘‘Vajpayee. acts as if the moment may finally have come to Kashmir. The Indian leader has inched his way steadily towards an accommodation with Pakistan by alternating threatening military moves and visions of mutual economic benefits built on peace,’’ he said.Hoagland quoted External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha as telling him during his Washington visit this week: ‘‘There has never been such promise and support for peace in both countries as there is now. I see a groundswell of support for peace on both sides.’’ Sinha, he said, declined to speculate on why Paksitan suddenly dropped many demands that in the past blocked peace on Kashmir.
