this is where i stand and am not ashamed of the same! that the military establishment in pakistan nurtured terrorists who have turned against them, engaging in barbaric crimes against innocent pakistani men, women and children, is not indias fault... humanitarian concern and solidarity with victims of terrorism in pakistan, and indeed, everywhere across the globe, aside, that pakistan is also a victim of terrorism is not a valid reason for indians to forget 26/11 or stop demanding justice for those of our countrymen and foreigners who lost their lives in those barbaric attacks and to demand of pakistan to check terrorism against india, failing which we neednt have any trade relations with pakistan, which boosts their economy much more than ours, nor do we need to have “talks” for god knows what till then... in any case, the masses of india have happily embraced ali zafar, rahat fateh ali khan and atif aslam; so, we dont need lessons in tolerance and open-mindedness from pakistan, which is not even officially a secular state, has blasphemy laws and restricts ahmedias religious freedom, where the hindu population is being systematically ethnically cleansed in rural sindh and where a governor voicing his concern for the christian minority is shot dead by his security guard and the judge sentencing the killer to death has to disappear! we sentenced nathuram godse to death when he killed mahatma gandhi for the latter raised his voice for indias muslim minority during the partition riots, and hundreds of hindus involved in anti-minority violence, in cases like the best bakery, sardarpura, ode and naroda patiya in gujarat in 2002, including politicians like maya kodnani, have been convicted, and so have politicians like manoj pradhan and ashok sahu in connection with the anti-christian riots in the kandhamal district of odisha in 2008, and even hundreds in connection with the anti-sikh riots in 1984, though some top notch politicians are yet to be convicted in that connection... it is also quite surprising that some ‘secular’ indian hindus never have time for the violence against the religious minorities in pakistan, bangladesh and kashmir, but scream their lungs out for gaza and pakistani muslim victims of terrorism! this is not to say that i am trying to suggest that all pakistanis are to blame, and that i am against stereotyping pakistanis in a negative fashion can be seen in these articles of mine – theindianeconomist/do-we-know-enough-about-the-pakistani-liberals/, theindianeconomist/do-we-tend-to-exaggerate-the-plight-of-the-religious-minorities-and-women-in-pakistan/ and blogs.tribune.pk/story/22366/i-am-an-indian-and-i-strongly-condemn-the-attack-on-ali-hassan-raza/ (do read them if you have any doubts about my impartiality), but it is for them to bring their act together and check terrorism, not only against themselves, but even against innocent indians, afghans, iranians and others… till they don’t do that, we can’t absolve the entire nation (yes, i am generalizing in this context) of having failed to deliver to us and the international community… yes, we, Indians, also need to wake up to the wrongdoings by those in our state machinery when it comes to kashmir (i’ve written this piece on that - theindianeconomist/we-want-cameron-to-apologize-will-the-indian-state-apologize-for-its-own-crimes/ ), but that is between us and the kashmiris, whom we regard as our citizens, most of whom want independence but not pakistan and 70% of whom came to vote in the recent elections (and no, i am not citing their participation in elections to suggest that everything is hunky dory between kashmiris and india - its not, but thats not what i am seeking to discuss here); our government doesn’t need to talk to its pakistani counterpart about kashmir till the perpetrators of 26/11 are not brought to book! people-to-people contacts and cultural exchanges with pakistanis can and should continue, but that is a different matter altogether from being sympathetic to the rogue pakistani state and not making it accountable for the damage it has inflicted upon innocent indians, just because innocent pakistanis have also suffered terrorism over the last decade and that too not at indian hands… press the like button if you so desire, but NO COMMENTS, please! Bansilal Mattoo, Siddharth Nayak, Paresh Gupta, Chandan Kumar, Ritvik Bucky Chauhan, Avin Chhangani, Shardul Vats, Prachi S. Shah, Gautam Chakrabarti, Parijat Chakraborty, Shayak Chakraborty, Devaditya Chakravarti, Rishabh Gulati, Charumati Haran, Shriya Syal, Geetika Agarwal, Sanjay Khan, Hafeez Khan, Mohammad Irfan Sohail, Abid Wani, Asna Farooqui, Ghania Siddiqui, Ziauddin Sherkar
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 06:13:13 +0000