I want to start this month’s column with a few words about an upright man who did not believe in jingoism, who stood up for the marginalised and whose pen was indeed mightier than the sword. I was shocked beyond words when I heard that this newspaper’s larger-than-life editor, Sankarshan Thakur, was no more. He is the one who asked me to write a monthly column for this paper and I will always be grateful to him for giving me this space. Sankarshan was a man who stood tall above the rest through his independent and bold journalism, who did not shy away from calling a spade a spade, who wove magic with his words, whose prose read like poetry, and whose stories were not just explainers but captured even the minutest of details. Sankarshan, you will be terribly missed by your family, your friends, your colleagues, your acquaintances, your readers and, above all, those voiceless people whose voice you became when not many had the guts to speak truth to power. You left this world too soon. Rest in power, ST.
I wanted to write about the devastating floods in Pakistan and India this month. Millions of people have been displaced. Official figures on Monday revealed that the overall death toll from monsoon rains in Pakistan since June has surged to 992. So I wanted to write on how climate change is now something permanent that we must all fight together. How vulnerable South Asia is to such calamities and how this should lead to long-term policies that can mitigate the damage of natural disasters. Unfortunately, it seems like there is little hope of a united front in this case owing to the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. I usually do not write much about Indo-Pak anymore because one just feels hopeless about the turn that events have taken and it seems as if there is not much space for a logical debate anymore. However, I feel that one must point out when absurdities are celebrated.
The outcome of India and Pakistan’s Asia Cup match on Sunday was not an unpredictable one but what happened on the field from the Indian side raised eyebrows: no handshakes by the Indian cricket team at the toss and after the match with their Pakistani counterparts. It was evident that a sporting event had acquired a political tone. The Indian captain’s post-match speech went beyond sports. What changed in a few days when the same Indian captain shook hands with his Pakistani counterpart at the Captains’ Conference? Could this be the consequence of the backlash that he had faced on mainstream media and social media? When sport is mixed with politics, it not only takes away from the spirit of the game but also creates further tensions between the two nations. As the Pakistani sports journalist, Faizan Lakhani, tweeted: “I’ve always believed Indo-Pak cricket could serve as a bridge where politics failed. Sadly, that hope is fading. Recent events show how sport has been reduced to a tool for jingoism, where political agendas overshadow the game, hyper-nationalism replaces courtesy, and even a simple handshake becomes impossible. Athletes are expected to respect the conventions of sports. Players shouldn’t be reduced to props for hate campaigns. Sport is meant to unite, to bring out the best in us, not the worst.”
It seems there is no rationality left anymore and jingoism is the new normal. ‘Cricket diplomacy’ between India and Pakistan was practised even during the worst of bilateral tensions but, sadly, that was in a bygone era. We do not know when we will get to see any semblance of normalisation between the two nuclear-armed nations.
As I write these lines, there is news coming in that the Indian government has barred Sikh pilgrims from visiting Pakistan for Guru Nanak Jayanti this year, citing security concerns. This move is being criticised in India. In the words of Rajdeep Sardesai, “Some traditions must rise above hostilities: let not faceless pilgrims and their faith get caught in a tug of war between nations.”
Mehmal Sarfraz is a journalist based in Lahore; mehmal.s@gmail.com