Mr. Shahid Afridi, be a Responsible Sportsperson

Subhash Shinde

 At present Pakistan and some of its famous personalities are busy in creating trouble for India instead of concentrating on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The incumbent Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan is amusing himself by giving unnecessary statements about India since he formed government in 2018. He has more recently got one more equally charming but brainless companion in the form of Shahid Afridi. Like Imran Khan, Shahid Afridi is also a cricketer who represented Pakistan at international level. His track record shows that he was unpredictable and eccentric cricketer. He never showed consistency in his cricket career. Sometimes, he was very successful and on other occasions a liability for his team. This young man at present is giving unwarranted statements about Pak occupied Kashmir (PoK). It clearly shows his political ambitions. It seems that Afridi wants to become the poster boy in the realm of Pakistani political system. His cricket career is over and from his recent actions one can judge that he is trying to explore his second innings in the muddy politics of Pakistan. We, as Indians are not opposed to his entering politics, but he should not involve himself in anti India rhetoric. Already, the Indo-Pak relations are going through very trying times. Imran Khan has aligned Pakistan very close to China. The acts of Pakistani Prime Minister in recent past show that he is personally moving nearer to Xi Jinping’s China. This action of Imran Khan, it seems is motivated from hate India perception of most of the Pakistani politicians, religious fundamentalists, terror groups and of course, military.

Pakistan Army is driven by the single most important agenda of fanning anti India sentiments among the ordinary Pakistanis. It is their need to nurture these feelings among the people of that country so that they should be able to keep the draconian grip on the political affairs of Pakistan. Since the creation of Pakistan, it has been observed that the Military establishment has never allowed the democratically elected government to rule Pakistan properly. It has taken the toll of parliamentary democracy in Pakistan, resulting into making Pakistan a ‘rogue state’. The democracy in Pakistan, best can be described as ‘pseudo democracy’, wherein the rulers are busy in amassing wealth and holding to their powerful positions by targeting India.

Pakistan has never been able to come to terms with the creation of independent and sovereign state of Bangladesh. In 1971, what seemed to be the internal problem of Pakistan, rather East Pakistan snowballed into a full-fledged controversy. Shaikh Mujibur Rehman, the East Pakistani or Bangla politician was denied his due place in the national politics of Pakistan by the West Pakistan and its then Military ruler, General Yahya Khan. The result of West Pakistani domination and denial of East Pakistan the respectful treatment was the creation of Bangladesh. Pakistan, still nurses the grudge against India accusing her for helping East Pakistan to secede away. This is a baseless discontent of Pakistan towards India. We didn’t have any other option but to intervene in this Pakistani problem as lakhs of refugees were coming to India from the then East Pakistan and present day Bangladesh due to the military action initiated by West Pakistan in that area. Hence, Indian intervention in this problem was essential and we did exactly the correct thing which was needed at that hour.

But, now when we are about to enter  the third decade of the 21st century, the Pakistanis need to be more responsible while dealing with the Indo-Pak relations. Your responsibility is more when you belong to the most popular game in the Indian subcontinent i.e. cricket. It’s a well-known fact throughout the world that the SAARC countries are crazy about cricket. Especially, in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka people literally worship the cricketers. Hence, it’s the responsibility of cricketers like Shahid Afridi to use their image and popularity in a positive manner for building their nation and, in this case improving relations with India. We are saying this, as Shahid Afridi himself had said during 2016 T20 World Cup in India that he gets more love in India than in Pakistan. This is the reason, he should try to bridge the differences between India and Pakistan instead of giving slogans and statements like ‘Kashmir Banega Pakistan’ and ‘I always talk about Kashmir for Kashmir runs in my blood as my grandfather Sahibzada Abdul Baqi Sahib was given the title of Ghazi-e-Kashmir (conqueror of Kashmir), therefore Kashmir belongs to me and my children’. It is nothing but utter irresponsible behaviour for improving one’s political stars in a country ravaged by poverty, inflation and unemployment. The Kashmir problem would be resolved only through peaceful talks, pragmatism and maturity displayed, especially from Pakistani side. Hence, the take home message is the artists and sportspersons from both sides should display more rational actions and efforts than involving themselves in verbosity for their short term petty political goals. The Indian sportsmen, sportswomen and artists have displayed the much needed maturity time and again in this regard. Now it’s the time for their Pakistani counterparts and especially the likes of Afridis to exhibit it.

The author is the Vice Principal and HoD History, VPM’s Joshi-Bedekar College, Thane