India has got divided between BJP and the rest
He was taken aback when he opened door to a loud knock in his home at a small village in Okara district in Punjab Province of Pakistan, around 200 kilometers from Lahore.
He was surprised to see a contingent of police at the entrance gate and later terrified when he came to know that police had come to arrest him.
He was to know later that he was being charged with a very serious offence of sedition and faced a prospectus of imprisonment for 10 years.
The young boy named Umar Draz, 22, was arrested by the Punjab (Pakistan) police under Pakistan Penal Code for acting against Pakistan sovereignty on January 26, 2016 for waving Indian flag atop the roof of his home.
When asked why he had hoisted an Indian flag on top of his home, Draz told reporters that he was a staunch fan of cricketer Virat Kohli of India, and was celebrating Kohli’s electrifying knock of 90 runs not out during the 3rd T20 match at Adelaide against the Australia.
Draz apologised for the act and said he did not know it was a crime. He pleaded with the authorities to pardon him as he was “an Indian cricketer fan” and not a “spy”.
“We raided the house of Umar Draz and seized the Indian flag from his rooftop,” said police official Muhammad Jamil.
The pleasant irony about the incident is that Indian hard core Hindu organisation has lashed out at Pakistan authorities for arresting Draz.
Young Draz did not have any idea of possible consequences of being a fan of Virat Kohli and unknowingly fell prey to the decades’ long animosity between India and Pakistan.
In India, a student leader Kanhaiya Kumar of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) was arrested by Delhi Police for raising his voice against what he termed as extra judicial killing of Mohammad Afzal Guru.
Afzal Guru was executed in Tihar Jail in 2013, after being convicted for his alleged role in parliament attack in 2001 which resulted in the killing of several security personnel.
Kanhaiya is charged with criminal conspiracy and sedition, a very serious offence, which, if established could land Kumar in jail for several years.
Kanhaiya has been facing the wrath of the over ambitions news channels who have suddenly found a fresh fodder for fattening up their TRPs. The media trail has since declared him a traitor has convicted him much before his judicial trail begins.
A crowd of saffronized goons heckled and manhandled him even in the court premises, and the court, on one or the other reason, is delaying to hear his bail plea and he continues to remain in Tihar jail.
The events in JNU have stirred a hot debate and have dominated the headlines of electronic and print media in India. BJP and its allies would not settle with anything less than Kumar’s head, as he has “raised sympathy in favour of a national enemy”.
What actually happened in JNU is that on February 9, on the 3rd anniversary of hanging of Afzal Guru, a group of students had organized an event in the JNU campus which was attended by representatives from most of JNU’s political groups.
The event, titled “The Country Without a Post Office”, had been organised to “stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self-determination” and, among other things, to protest against the judicial killing of Afzal Guru, who was hanged in 2013 after being convicted in the case of attack on Parliament in 2001.
The announcement of the proposed event did not go well with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), whose presence in the student unions and the campus is strong and have a backing and support of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Their plea to cancel the permission of the event was sustained by the university administration, but as per the news reports the event was still organised at a changed location. The University authorities allege that they were misled by the organisers of the event as they had asked for the permission to hold a cultural event and not the one they held.
The event soon turned into a scuffle between the ABVP and the Left organisations, particularly after some objectionable slogans were allegedly raised.
Some students present said that the slogans included, “Bharat ke tukde honge hazaar” (India will be broken into a thousand pieces) and “Bharat ki barbadi tak jung rahegi” (Fight will continue until India is destroyed).
It seems that India has got divided between BJP, read Saffron Brigade, and the rest. It looks as if BJP has sort of reserved to itself all the copyrights of nationalism and patriotism, and any other individual or group who do not toe their line are short of both such traits.
The twin incidents near Lahore and in New Delhi depict a very sad story of the intensity of animosity and hatred between two neighbouring countries, India and Pakistan.
This politics of hatred has till date consumed huge number of lives across the borders. This hostility has eaten into the economies of both the countries and deprived them of huge potential of development.
It has consumed mutual cultural and academic activities, games and sports and many other political and non political opportunities of mutual interest.
The biggest victim of this politics of abhorrence in none other than the Kashmiris and the biggest reason is nothing other than Kashmir.
Kashmiris, over the years have embraced everything from ballet to bullet, from reception to demonstration, from participations to boycotts, from showering flowers to stone pelting and what not, to get out of this agonising situation.
Nothing has changed for the poor Kashmiri. The situation has rather worsened instead of improving.
The biggest obstacle in resolving the issue is India’s arrogant approach, together with Pakistani’s political instability and its internal turbulence.
India has been opposing and even thwarting every move that could take the issue to logical solution. Indian is happy in carrying the dispute forward as it feels it has an upper hand by virtue of its military might, plus, because most of the causalities take place in the opposite camp.
How much more sufferings are in store for Kashmiris, and people like Draz and Kanhaiya only Allah knows.
Author can be mailed at ahmed.nasir10@yahoo.com
