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Dialogue and cricket do not mix

Tavleen Singh Posted online: Sun Apr 03 2011, 00:41 hrs

Even for me who cannot tell a googly from a doosra, last weeks match in Mohali was spellbinding. But, there was one very bad moment. I watched with friends in a Mumbai drawing room and when it looked briefly as if Pakistan may win, a silence fell over this gathering of businessmen, Bollywood actors and socialites. If Pakistan won, then the Pakistani team would have to come to Mumbai and stay in either the Taj or the Oberoi and the thought of this was too much to bear. Conversation inevitably turned to whether it was right for the Prime Minister to invite Pakistans Prime Minister to Mohali and there was unanimity that he should not have because if we want peace with Pakistan, it is time that we cut the cricket matches and the dinner parties and talked more seriously. In the manner that peace talks are conducted at the end of a bitter war, I have to say that I agree. Having been present at many past peace dialogues with Pakistan, I believe I am in a good position to comment on what goes wrong each and every time. The first mistake always is that we invite the neighbourhood military dictator or elected leader to come and watch a cricket match or for a state visit. So, he is treated with hysterical hospitality until he spits venom in our face. When General Pervez Musharraf came to India in the summer of 2001, there were hints of hostility even before he got to Agra. His wife was taken shopping by some needlessly friendly wives of high officials. When they showed her handwoven saris in a Delhi shop, she said rudely, I dont wear saris. It should have been a warning but was not. Musharraf continued to be treated as an honoured guest till he stormed off in a huff because he wanted to talk only about, Kashmir, Kashmir, Kashmir. In an interview to Time magazine last week, he was asked if terrorism was a bigger threat to Pakistan than India and he said, At the moment, its extremism and terrorism. But you cant compare...we cannot ever ignore India, which poses an existential threat to Pakistan.If this were just the opinion of one frustrated military man, the remark could be ignored. Sadly it is not. In Pakistan, I have met senior military officers who seriously believe that India remains enemy number one and must be destroyed by all means possible. And, I have met moderate civilians who believe that India has never accepted the existence of Pakistan. When I first heard these outlandish views, I tried explaining that not only did most Indians totally accept the existence of Pakistan but that south of Delhi, most people barely noticed its existence. Except when Pakistani terrorists are caught trying to blow up Indian cities and when Pakistani troops disguised as terrorists, cross the border to create mayhem in Kashmir. Pakistanis cannot understand this because they are obsessed with India. Younger Pakistanis, especially those bred in madrassas, are trained from their school days to despise Hindus as they are trained to despise Jews and Americans. Since Pakistan came into existence in the name of Islam, they learn from an early age to save Islam from all perceived threats and they see idol-worshiping, louche, materialistic India as a constant threat to the Islamic way of life. It is men with views like this who are currently in positions of power in Pakistan and it is with them, we have to talk because talk we must. But, when we talk to them it has to be quietly at serious conferences without the festivity that comes with cricket matches and state visits. It is only when the bonhomie is absent, that we can state clearly that if there is strife and turmoil on the Indian sub-continent, it is because of Pakistans jihadi foreign policy. The core problem is not Kashmir. If it was, then why have we seen Pakistanis involved in nearly every major act of international

terrorism in recent years? With cries for freedom and democracy heard from the streets of nearly every Islamic country, why is it cries for more Islam that arise from the streets of Pakistans cities? Pakistans problems are entirely the result of its own policies, domestic and foreign, and have nothing to do with India. We need to say this and we need to say that India is not and has never been an existential threat to Pakistan. We need a nontoxic and secure Pakistan if India is to become prosperous and rich. We are happy for Pakistan to share in our prosperity, if it stops thinking of India as enemy number one. You cannot say these things sweetly, so let us cut the athiti devo bhava crap and let real dialogue begin.