E-Paper
If we are a great nation, we have to prove it
Our quarrel is with the Pakistani state or its institutions like the ISI or its poodles like the Lashkar and the Jaish. It’s not with the Pakistani people
One of the worst mistakes you can make is to attempt to beat your opponent by imitating him. Yet it’s easily done. When you feel you need to retaliate by hitting back, what is colloquially but curiously called tit for tat, the temptation to respond by copying what has been done to you can be irresistible. This is because it feels logical and, therefore, seems correct.
The truth is almost the opposite. If your opponent is wrong you don’t emerge better by following his example. That would be descending to his level. Instead you should aim to rise above him. Tit for tat works when it teaches an irresistible lesson and not when it’s crude revenge.
I’ve deliberately started pompously because the people I’m hoping will listen to me are, I suspect, best impressed by grand words. For them simple logic needs to be tarted up with embroidery and grandiloquence before its piercing obviousness becomes apparent and can be accepted.
My point, however, is simple. Our quarrel is with the Pakistani state or its institutions like the ISI or its poodles like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed. It’s not with the Pakistani people. They were, after all, the same as us just 70 years ago. And in many ways they still are. Our enemies are the terrorists or the army.
Read: The choice now is Pakistan’s: Terror or talks
This distinction is critical for two reasons. First, it underpins our essential humanity. We must not lose sight of it nor let it slip out of our grasp. Pakistanis may want to be the opposite of India. Their hatred of us, if that’s the correct word, may be their defining characteristic. But that is not true of us. We do not define ourselves as the opposite of them.
The second reason this distinction is critical is because it explains why it’s wrong to express our anger by targeting or pillorying ordinary Pakistanis. They’re individuals like you and me. They’re no more responsible for what their government does than we are. They’re not to blame for it just as we would not have been when our government nurtured and promoted the Tamil Tigers. By the way, does anyone remember that or is it conveniently forgotten?
Read: We must be able to handle the Sharifs on our own
It would be not just foolish to ban Pakistani actors from Bollywood films or boycott the films they star in, it would also be diminishing and demeaning of ourselves. That may be the Pakistani way of doing things but it’s not ours. This is where imitation would destroy us.
Salman Khan is right when he says they’re actors not terrorists but his argument is incomplete. They are human beings first. They’re individuals and they deserve to be judged on their personal merit not by blunt and thoughtless association with their state or government. Otherwise, in the 1980s, would Hindus have been justified in boycotting Sikhs because Khalistani terrorists were planting bombs in Delhi parks? Or would Sikhs have been justified in regarding Hindus as enemies because hordes of mad men of that faith butchered them after Indira Gandhi’s death?
Read: We can take lessons on Kashmir from Northern Ireland
If we’re the great country we believe ourselves to be let’s prove it through our judgement and capacity to make critical distinctions. One paints a wall with broad and relentless brush strokes that spread a single colour from end to end, you create a masterpiece with little touches, masses of detail and the interplay of light and shadow. I would rather my country is compared to an artist’s masterpiece than an execution squad’s firing wall.
The views expressed are personal
