 It hurts; it really does, but why? It was ‘just a match’, according to some. A whole day of peaking and dipping levels of hope ended with a heavy heart. The pain would never have been the same if it were anyone other than India as opponent. So was it just a match? And if the answer is ‘no’ who were the players responsible for hyping the sentiments of the nation to a level from where, falling down was that disabling.The role of media has been pivotal in creating the environment and setting the stage for a ‘big clash’ as they were naming it. Indian media was as hilarious and immature as ever. They had their special goggles through which they were looking at the plans of Pakistani blowers to shatter Indian batsmen with a ‘kala pather’ net practice. The maniacally loud voice of Ravi Shastri and the arrogance of other Indian experts would never bring a single Pakistani close to them, I’m afraid. To be precise, it sounded much more than just a ‘traditional rivalry’ of two teams. The attitude was clearly hostile and the words and tones were evidently boasting and humiliating. Though our media is a thousand times better than Indian media, it has developed over time, a habit of competing and copying them as a part of its attention seeking behaviour. ‘Green falcons ready to attack the blue monsters’ What a beautiful quotable quote it was. The hypocrisy was at its peak. The hard to digest, cosmetically beautiful and much needed (without a doubt) ‘Aman kee aasha’ was put to sleep for some days. The upcoming combat was portrayed as a war between the enemies. All including TV channels, mobile phone companies, fortune-tellers, numerologists, astrologists and modern aalims earned their share in rousing the comatose ‘Mard e Mujahid’, who according to them was destined to be successful on ‘the land of the enemy’. Live prayers were said by a TV based aalim in a heart wrenching voice, ‘Ya Allah yeh tere banday hain inhain dushman kee serzameen per fatah say humkinaar ker’ Almighty was reminded that the men in green are His faithful and the ones praying for their success back home are His slaves. Why do we forget what it means to be ‘Slaves of Allah’ if we are praying on that basis? You can only claim your right to your membership if you stick to the rules of the club, isn’t it? Somehow we have gone into a habit of playing with our religion. We use it and abuse it wherever and however we like. Religion becomes unnecessarily important in some issues when it serves our purpose and on the other hand, we can beautifully wrap it up and put it aside where it feels like a hindrance to our much awaited plans about fun. Religion is never an issue when it comes to strictly following Indian rituals and style of celebrations in our weddings and other occasions. It is an unwanted phenomenon when we cannot help following extremely indecent and obscene Bollywood movies or ridiculously useless ‘saas bahu conspiracies’ on Star Plus. And we never feel any ‘traditional rivalry’ towards the Indians at all. Religion is best kept aside when our working class and housemaids are treated like ‘Shudrs’ (the untouchables). It has no role to play when it comes to sending your ‘girlfriend’ a valentine’s gift or throwing a dance party on the New Year’s Eve. But yes, religion is surely pulled in for a cricket match, although two-nation theory sounds obsolete to some, and is only taken out of the attic when required to give us benefit. At this instance, I cannot help recalling that the ‘old fashioned, impracticable and barbaric laws’, written in the Book of God become all beloved and acceptable when the beneficiary is an American murderer who commits crime against the state but is forgiven by one of the poorest family of Pakistan and justice is served within weeks. It’s not penny’s worth of an issue that everything attached to him was fake and illegal. It was absolutely useless information that he was an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle which connects the foreign invented war on terror in Pakistan and the killings of innocent civilians in drone and terror attacks in the country. My mind cannot help going back to the hypocrisy of leaders in this story. They bought time and did what they had to do or were asked to do, and again religion was used and abused and the Word of God was ridiculed. ‘No, I swear by the positions of the stars, and this indeed is a mighty oath, only if you knew, that this is a glorious Qur'an, inscribed in a well-guarded Book, which none can touch but the purified, A revelation by the Lord of the Universe. Then, do you regard this discourse as unworthy of serious attention? And do you have in this blessing only the share that you deny it? [Al-Waqiah 75-82] It’s probably the easiest and cheapest shot to use as tool for serving the interests of the so called leaders of the country. But hats off to the nation that gets divided on a clear-cut issue of misuse of religion by our rulers, who cannot even recite the Quran with due respect. Our dignity and honour is more hurt when we lose a match against ‘enemy’ as stated by our ‘azaad’ media than when a criminal and a dangerous spy with a lethal mission is hastily sent home within no time after the verdict. We lose another opportunity to bring about a change and raising our voice against the chronic exploitation of our sovereignty. What a remarkably complacent people we are. Nothing can shake us. How easy and joyful it must be to rule a people like us who shout online, spread emails and texts , but cling heavily to earth when demanded and required to come out on streets to raise the voice and topple the corrupt system . Let’s bring religion again to the rescue. Brothers and sisters sold and missing, innocent civilians murdered by blind drones, terror attacks everyday on shrines, funerals, jirgas, bomb blasts in markets and restaurants, a key clue to all the above mess released within weeks and safely sent home scratch-less, corruption and numbness to common man’s problems as never before, deprivation of human rights compelling people to sell or kill their children, ethnic issues and riots; and the list is long. But let’s pray, we are believers and Allah should come out and help us even if we are dead at heart and soul. Pakistan was founded in God’s name and is made to last forever, so why strive for change? God should take care of everything as He is bound to help His favourites, Good Luck! |
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