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| Indo-Pak Relations: Jinnah in Afridi speaks out | | Cricket Diplomacy | | Neha
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 5: On March 28, Army Major Mohan Singh, who is posted on the Kashmir border, expressed the hope that "cricket might succeed where diplomacy failed and mend India's ties with Pakistan." "The neighbours who fought three wars since their 1947 independence will met each other in Wednesday's (March 30) World Cup semi-final in Mohali with prime ministers of both the countries in attendance…Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh's invitation to his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani (is a good) gesture" (and it) would improve relations between the two countries…A few years ago, the situation was really bad but vast changes have taken place since," said another Army officer Gurpreet Singh, and added that "the match will enhance mutual love between both the countries" and "it will enhance mutual understanding and brotherhood among people of both the countries." Gurmeet Singh is also posted on the Kashmir border.
Simple Indians as they were, Mohan Singh and Gurmeet Singh expressed these sentiments overlooking the fact that Pakistani had all along wanted New Delhi to clap with one hand or announce concessions unilaterally. These Army officers also forgot that they were pinning faith in that Pakistan and Pakistani civil and military establishment whose single-point agenda all along had been to bleed India on a daily basis , annex Jammu and Kashmir on the ground that it is a Muslim-majority state and dismember India. These Army officers were so innocent and simple that they also forgot that Pakistan had always construed the New Delhi's umpteen unilateral goodwill gestures as signs of the Indian weakness and that the Pakistani Foreign Office had consistently abused, insulted and taunted India. The fact of the matter is that these Army officers ignored the ground realities and thought of something that was just not to happen.
It was none other than the defeated and frustrated Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi who put things in perspective and made it loud and clear that those who were entertaining the hope the Mohali match would lead to improvement in Indo-Pak ties were living in a world of the past. On Sunday, the Jinnah in the arrogant Afridi or this small man spoke out his mind. He told a Pakistani reporter that the "Indian media was highly negative"; that the "Indian media exaggerated and misinterpreted things"; that the "Indian media was biased"; that "it is the Indian media that is responsible for the estrangement between India and Pakistan"; that "it is just not possible to cultivate India and the Indians"; that "Muslims and Pakistanis are large-hearted, accommodating and liberal" and that "they want friendly relations with India and Indians"; that the "Indians are rigid, unaccommodating and not large-hearted like the Muslims and the Pakistanis"; that "Pakistan may put in all efforts to cultivate India but it would come out of this exercise minus everything"; that "I will not speak a lie and I will speak the truth and the truth is that Pakistan wants friendship but India doesn't"; and so on and so forth.
What Afridi told the Pakistani reporter was not just an affront to the self-respect of the Indian Muslims, who had hailed the Indian victory at Mohali like all other Indians, but it also established that he was a replica of Jinnah and other Pakistani leaders who want to change the destiny of the would in accordance with the pernicious ideology they profess.
It is good that the Government of India today snubbed Afridi and said: "He has no mandate to comment on the Indo-Pak-relations." But it is just not enough. The Pakistani problem is psychological and it has to be dealt with accordingly. |
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