Read an interesting post in FB on Pakistan that says ” Pakistani ghazal singers seek Indian audience, playback singers eye Bollywood songs, actors beckon Bollywood movies, cricketers were mightily upset for not allowed to take part in IPL. If indeed they had such fascination for everything Indian, why the hell they needed separation! Because to drop the bombs that they manufacture, they again have to come all the way to India!” The post very aptly sums up our anathema for our neighbour.
Also read an interesting poetic piece by renowned Pakistani poet Anwar Shaoor, who daily publishes a four lines rhyming poetry in popular Pakistani daily Jang on the topics of current interest that can be loosely summed up as ” Some lessons are not learnt in spite of their serious implications, as it seems that extremist rightist elements in India are hell bent upon creation of another Pakistan.”
Interestingly, both the posts are directly/indirectly about India’s intolerance, though we all take pride in our tolerance of all ideologies, our dharma of peace and ahimsa and our great past of being the land of Rama, Krishna, Budha, Mahavir and Mother Teresa. Thanks to very aggressive media and all the muck on social media, we seem to be losing our rational thinking, getting carried away by sensationalism. Boycott of Pakistani actors, players, artists, goods etc will only create a wider chasm and not bring us closer. Our artists and actors are adored in Pakistan. Pakistan has been offering to host Indo-Pak cricket series since long. Bollywood movies find big release in Pakistan ( till very recently- though now they seemed to have reacted with quid pro quo! ) and on several occasions, their media has been appreciative of our democratic process, modesty of Modi and simple lifestyle of leaders such as Modi and Shastri ( I saw a beautiful Pakistani piece of former Indian PM). Not to say that they are all good, because there are even bigger hawks on their side too!
Let’s strengthen our security, plug porousness of our borders, sharpen our intelligence and consolidate our internal unity to take Pakistan Heads on through policy intervention and militarily. Rest all is propaganda that does little to the pride of our great nation, which shall outlive many narrow minded, single objective focused nations like Pakistan.
Our military is our strength; our democracy is our strength; let’s now make our diversity our strength and we shall be invincible, which we already are, but will become even more!
Arvind Arya blog 