Thursday, December 31, 2009

Love Pakistan? Not yet...

The Times of India has started a bold new campaign on the New Year... Love Pakistan. Some arguments and counterarguments are bound to come up there. At the outset, I concede that I am on the side of naysayers. I also dare say, this seems to be a gimmick but one with intent of doing something good.

It actually feels odd to see India, Pakistan and Love in the same sentence. And can anyone be blamed for this? It is not just what we have been fed over the past 60 years of ‘hate propaganda’. Any well meaning individual who feels for the common man and specially for the armed forces will have this odd feeling.

Also, when all previous attempts of extending hands has met only cynicism and counterproductive results like terror attacks, it makes common sense to be wary. The sadhu who keeps on tending the scorpion that bites back may not have to stop tending to the scorpion. But he definitely needs to take care of the sting before taking care of the wound of scorpion.

After all these years of gore and attacks in my country having been propagated by Pakistan, I can easily love the common people, cricketers, singers, etc on the other side of the border. But loving Pakistan... boss... I know better than that. I love the likes of Karkare, Saluskar, Kamte, Nachiketa, Unnikrishnan, Suri and common Indians too much to love the hand that killed them all.

3 comments:

  1. funnily enough, they feel the same way too. A Pakistani in my office very easily and truly believes that the terror attacks in their country are organized by India. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind! What the media feeds is what the people believe.

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  2. Well, the world has already heard of funny, unsubstantiated allegations of 'hindu terrorists'. Though RAW might have been involved in a couple of covert strikes for all we know, it is commonplace knowledge that the terror attacks in Pakistan are direct result of the taliban appeasement policy of USA and Pak.

    And i m quite sure your colleague would be a good person in himself.

    That is my whole point, I can love Pakistanis, but not Pakistan. There is a world of difference between thee two.

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  3. I agree with your point. In fact, Arnab Da makes a compelling argument for the same: http://greatbong.net/2010/01/05/bhai-bhai/

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