Should India Play Cricket World Cup With Pakistan?

It is extremely shocking to see that India is least perturbed about the most dubious, dangerous and dastardly role played by Pakistan in repeatedly sending terrorists to kill not just our soldiers but also innocents as we just witnessed when even migrants from UP like Sageer Ahmed from Saharanpur and so also from Bihar were not spared apart from Kashmiri Pandits and Sikhs! Cricket and terror cannot go together. Let us not forget that Imran Khan who is now in the helm of affairs in Pakistan was also earlier a cricketer and he always tries to justify violence and terror attacks against India! It will certainly not tantamount to an exaggeration if I say that, “Better to die than play with terror sponsor Pakistan or even watch any match with a rogue country like Pakistan.”

No doubt, we are definitely the worst country in the world if we still keep playing cricket with Pakistan most shamelessly who keeps sending terrorists to behead our soldiers, attack holy pilgrims and not spare even women as we saw most recently when Principal Supinder Kour from Budgam’s Beerwah and Kashmiri Pandit Deepak Chand who had migrated back to the Valley from Jammu were killed! Yet we Indians are so shameless, senseless and stupid that we favour playing T 20 match with a rogue and terror sponsor country like Pakistan! We forget most conveniently what Lord Krishna had once said to Arjun which is even mentioned in the Bhagwad Gita that, “Those who tolerate injustice are equally rather more guilty than the one who perpetrates injustice.”

One cannot but completely subscribe with what Asaduddin Owaisi who is leader of AIMIM said just recently while asking Centre that, “Nine of our soldiers died in J&K and India will be playing T20 match with Pakistan on October 24?” Do the lives of our soldiers carry no value? Is playing cricket with Pakistan more important for Centre? Owaisi further put the blame directly on the BJP-led Central Government for the series of targeted civilian killings in Kashmir.

Needless to say, Owaisi knows that Pakistan has been carrying out proxy war against India since last many decades and we have been just ignoring and are back to business as usual. Have we given unwritten fundamental right to Pakistan to kill our soldiers most mercilessly, our women and children most mercilessly and yet play cricket and badminton and what not with them and adhere to what former PM late Atal Bihari Vajpayee that, “We can change our friends but we cannot change our neighbours.” So should we allow neighbours to occupy a part of our house? Should we allow neighbours to mercilessly kill members of our family by way of cross border terrorism? Should we be very happy that Centre is spending thousands of crores on war memorials for soldiers but never cares to bring to task our rogue neighbour named Pakistan which has developed “Terror Machinery” to be directed fully against India except one or two surgical strikes in a blue moon?

Let me be direct in saying: Even God cannot help the country where people become insensitive to killings of soldiers posted on border areas to protect them. We all saw in past also Pakistani soldiers beheaded Hemraj Singh and took his head as trophy or as football so that soldiers of Pakistan can play with it while kicking it as a football is kicked. Why India keeps tolerating repeated killings of its soldiers quietly? Which self-respecting nation will tolerate so much of nonsense?

Let me also be more forthright in asking: What is the point of lighting candles for soldiers, creating war memorials for them when politicians feel that relations with Pakistan are of utmost importance and can never be severed under any circumstances? What is the point of saluting soldiers when politicians feel that Pakistan whose soldiers executes their merciless killing and then mutilates their dead body and then beheads them is our neighbour and “We can change our friends but not our neighbour? What is the point of singing national anthem or saluting national flag when politicians don’t care for our soldiers?

There is no reason why inspite of repeated terror attacks Pakistan is not being declared a terror state in India. Political parties who dominate in Centre have something which they are hiding from the people. Why repeated terror attacks fail to awaken their conscience?

The national General Secretary and former Rajya Sabha member – Maulana Mahmood Madani has come out open vocally demanding that Pakistan be declared a terror state because of its malevolent activities on India. He also said that it is a non-Islamic country. He made it clear that the whole world is criticizing Pakistan for its deep involvement in terror activities. He demanded that Pakistan be declared an “Aatankistaan” and wondered aloud why it is not being declared so.

Madani also minced no words in making it clear that Pakistan won’t reform and it will keep on supporting terrorism under all circumstances. He also said that Pakistan is repeatedly violating ceasefire and promoting terrorism in India with full gusto. We all know that Maulana Mahmood Madani is one of the most respected leader of India and what he says cannot be lightly dismissed under any circumstances.

Let us not forget that it is this very Maulana Mahmood Madani who was the first from India to summon courage to openly give a shut up call to former Pakistani dictator and President Gen Pervez Musharraf when he was invited by “India Today” group to speak in “India Conclave” from where he lashed out at the deplorable condition of Indian Muslims! Leaders from BJP and other parties, former army generals were all present but no one lashed out at Gen Musharraf except him! Madani immediately after he completed speaking lashed out saying that, “I am seeing that you want to start your politics of Pakistan from India. This will not be allowed. You don’t worry about Indian Muslims. 90% of Hindus are always with us and they shall always remain with us. So you just don ‘t bother about us. You bother about your own Pakistan.” It is most tragic that except him and another independent MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar, no major political party is willing to declare Pakistan a terror state.

Should we hold talks and dialogues not with rapists or dacoits or robbers or murderers or other ordinary criminals not trained in Pakistan but only and only with terrorists trained, armed to the teeth and sent to mercilessly kill Indians by Pakistan as we have been doing since last many decades? Should we declare ceasefire and that too “Ramzan ka ceasefire” not “Diwali or Holi or Christmas ka ceasefire” as we have been seeing in J&K for such terror groups and rogue countries like Pakistan allowing them to re-group, re-arm and re-strike thereby killing many innocent citizens apart from our brave soldiers? Centre must declare that which Muslim group is pressurizing them to do so!

Just abolishing Article 370 alone will not do! Pakistan has to be taught a very big lesson now. It cannot be just held in cold storage any longer. It is not Sanjeev Sirohi or my best friend Sageer Khan or my advocate friends like Sanjeev Tomar or Dheeraj Kaushik or Amit Sharma or Parvez Alam or anyone else but a former Army Chief named General (retd) Shankar Roy Choudhary who has himself fought so many wars most bravely and who as early as in September 2016 after Uri terror attacks had said that, “Time for India to raise our own Fidayeen”. But this PM Narendra Damodardas Modi has never allowed in his more than seven year rule just like he has not allowed a single more High Court Bench in any nook and corner of UP even though UP have so many holy cities like Ayodhya, Kashi or Varanasi or Mathura or Gorakhpur or Meerut or any other city as he feels till now that not a single city is suitable for a High Court Bench. But PM Modi is very happy to direct Deep Mahotsav in Ayodhya by lighting lakhs of diyas and it has already made Guiness Book of World Record by lighting over 6 lakh diyas and in 2021 it is declared that 7.5 lakh diyas will be lit even though the people there are not fit to be given a High Court Bench as only Nawabs who earlier ruled States and city famous by name of Lucknow called “Nawab City” and a city famous by name of Allah known as “Allahabad” are only suitable for High Court in UP. But leave alone what Gen Shankar Roy Choudhary has suggested, Centre is not ready to even nuke all relations with Pakistan!

The politicians have also made it clear that even if Pakistan continues sending their Border Action Team to India to brutally kill our soldiers, decapitate their head, other body parts and even their private parts as happened also very recently but they will continue maintaining cordial relations with Pakistan and continue playing cricket matches with them! Our politicians have also made it clear that no matter how hard Pakistan tries to scuttle peace efforts they will not budge and shall continue seeking good relations with Pakistan!

Nothing on earth can be more shocking! It were our brave soldiers who won the 1971 war against Pakistan. But see what happened! We released 93,000 Pakistani prisoners of war but they didn’t release our 54 soldiers who were tortured mercilessly as was testified by none other than the then Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who after being deposed by Gen Zia ul Haq was thrown in prison next to where the Indian soldiers who were prisoners in custody of Pakistan were lodged and he wrote that whole night the Indian prisoners of war were beaten mercilessly and their shriek in pain could be heard continuously! Who was responsible for it? The political leadership of that time! Why politicians care a damn for our soldiers and believe only in paying lip service to them? Why politicians believe strongly that Pakistan is more important than our soldiers and playing cricket match more important?

Truth be told, there are innumerable such reported and unreported incidents. During Kargil war we all saw how Captain Saurav Kalia and 5 soldiers of 4 Jat Regiment were mercilessly tortured not for 2 days or 5 days or 10 days or 15 days or 20 days but for full 22 days! They were blinded and their eyes were gouged out by hot iron rods similarly their ears, nose and other parts too were similarly mutilated. Not stopping here their whole body bore signs of cigarette torture and even their private parts were not spared and were cut and put in their mouth. Finally they were shot in the head after more than 20 days of most horrifying torture!

But for our political leadership, relations with Pakistan were more important and it was decided to not rake up this issue not just in any international forum but also in any bilateral forum even though the then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the then Defence Minister Jaswant Singh promised to Captain Kalia’s parents that they would raise this in every forum available with full force! As if this was not enough, a head of an Indian soldier – Bhausaheb Maruti Talekar was beheaded on 27 February 2000 and the dreaded Al Qaeda terrorist Iliyas Kashmiri who beheaded him presented the severed head to the Pakistani invader Gen Pervez Musharraf who was quick to immediately hand over Rs 1 lakh to him as cash prize and vowed to keep it as trophy with him and this was reported widely in all English dailies! Pakistani media published the photographs of Iliyas Kashmiri carrying the severed head of Kalekar!

Truly speaking, even now matters don’t end! Our political leadership decided to accord a red carpet royal reception to Pakistani invader Gen Pervez Musharraf on whose instructions Talekar was beheaded by Kashmiri and who masterminded Kargil war in which we lost more than 600 soldiers as per official figures even though unofficially the figure is quite higher! All major political parties were united in treating Gen Musharraf like a royal emperor and they felt truly honoured in shaking hands with him, having photo-ops with him, hosting parties for him and what not! Is this the way human rights of soldiers are respected in India?

To put things in perspective, we all also know fully well how the Pakistani soldiers in 2013 entered Indian territory and beheaded our brave soldier Hemraj Singh and took away his severed head as trophy and also mutilated the body of another soldier Sudhakar Singh! We also saw how the children and wife and parents of Hemraj kept pleading for the head of Hemraj to see him one last time! Above all, the political leadership yet again decided that relations with Pakistan are more important than soldiers and that would continue uninterrupted!

It is known to all that Pakistan trains, arms and fires at Indian troops to ensure that terrorists safely land inside Indian territory to cause maximum death and destruction all around! We all saw how during Uri attack the terrorists specifically targeted Indian soldiers and killed about 20 of them! Still the political leadership decided that relations with Pakistan would flourish!

We all also saw how after the Pathankot terror attack which took place about two years back in which we lost many of our brave soldiers including a Lieutenant Colonel and a Major, yet Centre decided to again not nuke any kind of relations with Pakistan! Instead, they went ahead and decided to invite the officials of notorious Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to visit the site where terror attack took place so that they could inspect and help in solving the dastardly terror attack! No prizes for guessing that the net result was a big zero and Pakistan refused to honour its commitment to invite Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) officials to Pakistan to interrogate the key suspects!

I pity the security adviser to Centre who advised them to invite ISI officials! It was our national image that again took the worst beating! But our political establishment is least bothered about all this! Why our political leaders inspite of being betrayed by Pakistan time and again keep trusting them blindly? Only they themselves can tell this!

We have seen so many times that India keeps on submitting proofs and dossiers of Pakistan Army’s involvement to Pakistan in fomenting terrorists only to get no reply! For how long? For how long will our political establishment keep fooling the people? For more than 3 decades Punjab bore the brunt of terrorism sponsored by Pakistan yet our politicians refuse to see the clear writing on the wall!

Why inspite of India losing more than a lakh soldiers to terrorism sponsored directly by Pakistan has the political establishment decided to not let it affect bilateral ties in any manner? Why are the human rights of soldiers not respected in India? Why the Prime Minister of India has time to visit Kedarnath shrine but has just no time to visit the family of those soldiers who had been beheaded and mutilated?

Why our political establishment is adopting such a pusillaminous approach towards Pakistan? Why has Pakistan declared proxy war against India since last more than five decades due to which we have lost many of our brave soldiers and still for our politicians relations with Pakistan are more important than our brave soldiers who are ready to sacrifice their invaluable lives for the nation? Why politicians never send their children to army or any other fighting force while exhorting others to join them?

It is most shocking to see that Indian politicians consider Pakistani diplomats more important than our soldiers! They cannot be killed and they have to be honourably treated as we are bound by the Vienna Convention but certainly they can be ordered to leave India and not come back as long as undeclared proxy war is continuing against India! Why politicians don’t value the life of soldiers who sacrifice their everything for us and why politicians are hell bent that relations with Pakistan cannot be broken under any circumstances?

Human rights of soldiers too must be respected in India! Why people at certain places throw stones and what not at them and yet they are expected to not retaliate? Do soldiers have no human rights? Certainly not! They too have human rights which must be respected at least by Indians ourselves!

Politicians enjoy security due to soldiers deployed around them and yet they care a damn for their human rights! This alone explains why inspite of repeated beheading of our soldiers by Pakistani soldiers and terrorists trained in Pakistan do they still favour a huge army of Pakistani diplomats in India many of whom work for ISI and also favour retaining MFN status for Pakistan as also according grand welcome to Pakistani invaders like Gen Musharraf! Not just this they also enjoy going to Pakistan as a surprise like PM Modi did some time back and what did he got in return? More terror attacks on India? This must stop if we really want Pakistan to take us seriously!

Just one surgical strike is nothing if it is not backed up by other concrete measures! Stop issuing visas to Pakistanis! Stop playing games with them! Stop sending diplomats to Pakistan and stop receiving diplomats from Pakistan in India! Stop declaring ceasefire with terrorists who mercilessly kill our soldiers as we saw just recently! Stop holding talks and dialogues with terrorists and stop according them VVIP treatment! Stop appointing interlocutors for terrorists!

The human rights and welfare of our soldiers are paramount! There can be no compromise on it. But most unfortunately at the behest of our politicians there has been repeated compromises on it which can never be good for the healthy being of our country under any circumstances! Just spending one night on Diwali or Holi with them is nothing but a sham!

Let us not forget that we owe our lives to soldiers who defend us from not only terrorists and Pakistan but also from many other things! Whenever there is a crisis like flood it is soldiers who are called in to help and who do their best to provide us all relief which we need in those trying times! This we must all always keep in our mind especially our politicians who are notorious for kowtowing in front of Pakistan knowing fully well that the people are not in favour of it!

I cannot second guess why they indulge in such erratic behavior! Are they on payroll of Pakistan or its army or ISI or any other foreign power who wishes to see India humiliated from them? Only these politicians themselves can reply best! But as long as politicians accord red carpet welcome to Pakistani invaders like Gen Musharraf who had even threatened to nuke India during Kargil war as he feels that Pakistan alone has the birthright to invade and continue according MFN status to Pakistan and feel proud in attending wedding ceremonies and birthday ceremonies in Pakistan, things won’t change on the ground!

Why are we tolerating Pakistani diplomats on our soil? Why are we keeping their huge army on our soil? Why are they allowed to meddle in our internal matters and speak on issues on which they have no right to speak?

Why can’t we expel them until and unless Pakistan starts behaving normally with us for many years together? Why do we unilaterally commit ourself to WTO and accord MFN status to them? Why all parties who have been in power since independence have followed appeasement policy towards Pakistan? It is because our country is in the hands of most selfish and third rated politicians for whom Pakistan comes above everything else! Arab nations have severed all relations with Qatar for supporting terrorism but Indian politicians are mad in love for Pakistan inspite of being repeatedly stabbed by Pakistan!

A very hard message needs to go out that India won’t tolerate the killing or beheading or humiliation of its soldiers in any manner and would retaliate with full force if provoked by any country and not just Pakistan! It is high time and now the human rights of our soldiers too must be respected on ground and mere lip service just won’t do! It is our politicians who remote control all power in India who need to understand this the most! Sadly, it is they and they alone who seem to care the least! No point building more war memorials if we take for granted our soldiers beheading, mutilation or torture or humiliation in any manner under any circumstances and keep playing T 20 cricket with Pakistan even as our soldiers are still fighting with terrorists in Poonch and so many of them have already died and for weeks the fight is going on in a jungle area!

What a pity that for a terrorist like Afzal Guru who proudly confessed his stellar role in carrying out the Parliament attack in 2001 there are thousands of voices from JNU and other universities in his support but for soldiers who face bullets for our safety we don’t get to see any such voices in favour of their human rights! It is we the people who have to reform more than politicians. Politicians are mostly cunning and this alone explains why they spare no opportunity to take up any issue which they feel will consolidate their vote bank in order to make them win elections! Why do eminent jurists and intellectuals not speak out vociferously in support of human rights of soldiers as they speak out in case of terrorists like Afzal?

All said and done, human rights of soldiers are supreme and if they are compromised in any manner as we have been seeing in our country since quite a long time then no power on earth not even God can save us from complete annihilation! For this we can blame no one but our ownselves! Do we ever want this to happen? The choice is really ours! We have to fight our own battle! No other country whether it is USA or Russia or France etc will fight for us! We have to start learning to truly respect the human rights of our soldiers also who are always there with us in thick and thin and by doing so it will not be a big favour from us or our politicians but it is our moral and legal duty also from which we cannot run away under any circumstances!

Above all, Pakistan who is constantly torturing, beheading and mutilating our soldiers cannot be above our nation itself which exists because of our brave soldiers who are always prepared to sacrifice themselves voluntarily and it is high time that all relations with Pakistan should be nuked as they have shown no signs of reforming and this despite Indian politicians always procrastinating and kowtowing in front of them! Politicians must start respecting the human rights of soldiers as also all of us. Only then can our great nation become strong and truly developed! But I can give it to you in writing that most third rated politicians of India who are ruling us will never severe relations with Pakistan under any circumstances. For them relations with Pakistan are more important than anything else!

It is most disgusting and disheartening to note that a small Muslim country in the Gulf region named Kuwait has the guts and daring to blacklist and ban Pakistani nationals from entering the country over fears of political unrest which could prove a risk to the Gulf state’s security. The blacklist includes trade, tourism and visit visas as well as visas sponsored by spouses. But shameless Indian politicians are so shameless that they are just not prepared to do anything against Pakistan and inspite of losing lakhs of lives to terror industry sponsored directly from Pakistan are not prepared at all to act in any manner against Pakistan! Why?

It is as clear as daylight that Pakistan has made terrorism a cottage industry which is mushrooming in nearly all parts of the country. Our soldiers are dying everyday while fighting with Pakistani soldiers and terrorists trained by Pakistani Army and ISI yet we see shameless politicians gifting shawl to leaders of Pakistan and attending their various functions. Why are our politicians so shameless? It is because they never pick up guns and fight on the borders nor do they ever send their children to the borders to die for our nation! So it is but natural that how can they feel the pain that is suffered only by our soldiers who are posted on the borders?

Why Rajeev Chandrashekhar had earlier moved a private member Bill to declare Pakistan a terror state but it fell through as major political parties like BJP and Congress don’t want Pakistan to be declared a terror state? Why Rajeev Chandrashekhar again moves a private member Bill for the same purpose and major parties again are not prepared to affirm their commitment to declaring Pakistan a terror sponsor country? Why even Maulana Mehmood Madani wants Pakistan to be declared a terror state but shameless politicians are again keeping their trap shut on it?

Why shameless politicians never send their own children to army to die as soldier? Why shameless politicians don’t feel the pinch even after India has lost more than 1 lakh soldiers to terror sponsored by Pakistan? Why shameless politicians don’t hold talks and dialogues with rapists or dacoits or any other ordinary criminal who are certainly Indians by birth and not Pakistanis but only holds talks and dialogues with terrorists trained in Pakistan or any other foreign nation and similarly why ceasefire too is declared only for terrorists who re-arm, re-group and re-kill with more fury after being aided, assisted and abetted by Pakistan? Why interlocutors are appointed for terrorists trained in foreign rogue countries like Pakistan? Can anyone tell me?

Why shameless politicians never change the law to send Pakistanis living in India to Pakistan? Why shameless politicians allow Pakistani flags and flags of dreaded terror groups like ISIS to be waved openly in India? Why shameless politicians defend those Pakistanis who shout “Meri Jaan Pakistan, Mera Kaleja Pakistan, Meri Chhati Pakistan, Meri Dhadkaan Pakistan and never send them to Pakistan? Why should they be granted Indian citizenship when they swear by Pakistan?

Why Gen GD Bakshi, Col RSN Singh and many other brave soldiers repeatedly say that they are ready to bear the expense of those Pakistanis who shout slogans in support of Pakistan and yet shameless politicians never listens to them and wants these Pakistanis to keep staying in India? Why are they not sent to Pakistan whom they love so much? Why such Pakistanis don’t emulate the famous singer Adnan Sami who was a Pakistani but he liked India so he took Indian citizenship similarly why don’t they go to Pakistan and take Pakistani citizenship? Why shameless politicians make no law in this regard so that no Pakistani feels compelled to beat his breast and keep crying “Pakistan, Pakistan, Pakistan” rather immediately shift to Pakistan where their heart lies really?

Why shameless Indian politicians learn no lesson from repeated terror attacks in which we lose so many precious lives? Why shameless politicians allow Pakistanis to enter India on one pretext or the other like watching cricket matches or some other reason and then manage to go absconding to carry out terror attacks indiscriminately against India? Why shameless politicians keep ranting against Pakistan during election rallies but are not ever prepared to declare it a terror state nor ever snap all ties with it by enacting law to nuke all relations with Pakistan?

I can keep going on but that will not be correct as my esteemed readers patience will then start wearing thin. How long will we keep giving long rope to Pakistan? How long will we keep giving Pakistan chance to reform at the cost of lives of our soldiers, citizens and our national security? Can our politicians ever reform themselves on this? No, they will never and they will continue with the charade of blindly reposing unflinching faith in Pakistan and maintaining cordial relations with Pakistan even as our soldiers keep dying, keep getting beheaded and mutilated because how does this affects our politicians? Shame on such shameless politicians! They are more dangerous than Pakistan itself and this is voiced by people all across India but they really care two hoots about it! This is the real reason why Pakistan never gets black listed as world does not take us seriously on terrorism sponsored directly by Pakistan and is still just on grey list!

Note* - Views of the author are strictly and exclusively his/her. The same in no way is endorsed or supported or for that matter disagreed with by LAWyersClubIndia.