Double, Triple Standards

MARCH 1999 - The Indians have gone back and it is now possible to meet people without being assaulted by the most popular theory that was doing the rounds two weeks back; namely that the Americans had had enough and ordered the two warring countries to kiss and make up. In between, before and after, any amount of articles and opinions have expressed the need for peace.

In all the excitement that Mr.Vajpaye’s visit generated and the mellow noises both sides were making, some even reciting verses, I was amused to see how warmly and with genuine affection, our top brass were greeting their Indian guests. Many homes were buzzing the day the bus rolled into Lahore with unconfirmed reports that the celebs accompanying the Indian Prime Minister were going to mingle with us ordinary folks. And they did. Kapil Dev whom I have always seen on TV running with a red object in his right hand, was seated next to me, his tie loosened, talking of peace. Javed Akhtar sporting a bad back had all the women clucking over him and fussing about where he should sit. There were others one didn’t know, who were partially ignored by the Lahoris because they were neither cricketers, film stars or poets. There was peace and goodwill in the air and the discussions were peppered with hope and optimism. We couldn’t meet Dev Anand because he was elsewhere, but Kapil was nice and even suggested that Wasim Akram should have asked Tendulkar to bat on which would have made him a ‘great hero.’ No one said, ‘In India only buddy. Here he would be lynched because as sure as there is a sunrise, Tendulkar would have scored a ton and that would have been the end of Wasim.’ No one also asked Kapil if Azharuddin would have called back Saeed Anwar under similar circumstances. No one did because the general mood was conciliatory.

Now this friendship with the Indians is all very well and may this flower blossom, but I have been wondering about something. How can we confer the nation’s highest award to Dilip Kumar, escort Shashi Kapoor as he discovers his roots, bow and reverently hold Dev Anand’s hand, look up with adoration and respect at Kapil Dev, listen in awe to Javed Akhtar and nod in intense agreement with other Indian performers, journalists, writers, parliamentarians and government officials when they all talk of peace, harmony and the sub-continental brotherhood and get ready to lynch Junoon who said the same thing last year? We all remember how this government led by its right winger hawks and supported by its supplicant media were ready to tear the band from limb to limb for having betrayed the country when all they said was more or less what everyone said a year later in Lahore, including the country’s Prime Minister. When the band, riding on a high wave, with all the rave reviews they were picking up in India, spoke about brotherhood, the power of music and the common threads of existence between the two peoples, the reaction here was that the ideology of Pakistan had been threatened by a diabolical plot. No, not just the ideology but the very concept of the ideology. (How is a concept different from ideology ? Beats me). Now, the only national objective seems to lie in loving the Indians to distraction. Everyone suddenly seems to have made this amazing discovery that the Indians aren’t too bad really, that if our PM embraces their PM it is not a cardinal sin and he won’t burn in hell fires, that hey we have lots in common and are afflicted with the same problems. So why can’t we cut the red tape, loosen the restrictions, open up the visas, bring in trade and make good things happen ? Why not, but where were we all a few months back ? Or, is it that all you need is one bus ride and the barriers can start to come down ?

The answer probably lies in reading 1984. Traditional enemies one second, become long lost comrades a second later. It all depends on who is calling the shots and when. Here, in 1999, while the losers who form Qazi’s brigade of do-gooders are basically crack pots who have programmed themselves never to win an election, what logic and good sense wafts in Islamabad that black becomes white and white, black overnight ? The band thinks they got the rough end of the stick not because of what they said in India, but the Ehtesab video which although lampooning the Bhuttos, mocked the whole rotten power edifice which sprouts like an ugly cactus over the country. For the record, they are still banned on Pakistan Television and are considered subversive and anti-state. A video of the band playing before a 20,000 strong Central Park crowd in the US with hundreds of Pakistanis waving the national flag was rejected by PTV on some mysterious grounds. When the band pressed for a written rejection, this request was rejected. (At least they are consistent). This kind of thinking on both sides of the line, and dare one say, more here than there, has been the reason why peace has eluded us. Unless we can shake off our built-in complexes and not regard everyone and everything as a plot against us, we can only carry on looking more and more foolish by the day. For a change, it is time Pakistanis realise that the sun and the moon do not exactly revolve around them and that the centre of the universe is not Islamabad. The world, most of it any way, is far too busy pushing ahead and as the cynic put it, ‘it ain’t happening on this bus.’ Instead, we should stop pointing fingers, stop pontificating and get on with the next century.

Music, gentlemen.