Saturday, January 17, 2009

Mumbai 26/11; Cricket and Comedy Circus


It is now almost 2 months that Mumbai was invaded by a bunch of Pakistani citizens. The response of India till date has been creating diplomatic pressure on Pakistan and that has yielded nothing concrete as of yet and I do not expect Pakistan to give in to any of India's demand post 11/26.

India has asked countries like Germany not to sell arms and ammunition to Pakistan because of their role in state sponsored terrorism. In this gloom doom economic scenario will the arms producing countries refrain from selling arms to Pakistan is anybody's guess.

It is common knowledge that every human will protest if their source of income is curtailed. There are hundreds of Pakistani's who are earning millions of rupees in India, in fields like acting, playback singing, comedy and not to forget cricket; Adnan Sami, Shakeel Siddiqui, Kashif Mehmood, and the full Pakistani cricket team are few of the examples. These guys come to India with the sole intention of becoming famous and earning megabucks as Pakistan as limited opportunities.

It is my belief when the common Pakistani's cannot earn megabucks in India, they will slowly but surely build pressure on the Government of Pakistan to stop terrorism against India so that they can go back and earn in India.

Though it is my belief that arts/sports do not believe in divisions on the basis of nationality, but at the same time we should not forget that there cannot be friendship between India and Pakistan with a one-sided effort.

Recently, MNS activists and/or Shiv Sainiks had barged in to the shooting of Chinchpokali to China (a sort of sequel to Comedy Circus) and asked Shakeel Siddiqui (a Pakistani standup comedian) to leave Mumbai and the country immediately. Although I DEPLORE most of the actions of the Thackeray cousins, I support this act wholeheartedly.

I think good sense will prevail on the IPL franchise owners to be patriotic towards their country and refrain from taking Pakistani's in their teams (for the second edition of IPL). I would appeal to the Government of India not to issue visas to the Pakistani cricketers to come and play in IPL and ICL.

It is high time that India should at the very least put economic sanctions on Pakistan and stop all cultural activities with that country. Pakistan is attacking India's sovereignty and we as a nation cannot expect USA or UK to come to our rescue. If we do not act, nobody will.

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