HVK Archives: Touch me not
Touch me not - Mid-day
M V Kamath
()
May 7, 1998
Title: Touch me not
Author: M V Kamath
Publication: Mid-day
Date: May 7, 1998
The other day Shiv Sainiks broke up a concert organised in Mumbai
at which Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali was to be the star
performer. They barged into the hall, shouted slogans, disrupted
the performance and made themselves thoroughly obnoxious. The
liberal press in the country was in a tizzy. How could such a
thing happen, it was asked. One national newspaper said: "What
the Shiv Sena has done is not an Indo-Pak tit-for-tat but an
affront to the ethos of this Country. Maharashtra chief minister
should shed his ambivalence and punish those who insulted an
artists and also assure the citizens of Mumbai that its own
secular traditions would not be subverted by displays of
patriotism based on hatred". Excellent and thoughtful words.
Now there is an ancient saying in Sanskrit in the nature of a
shubashitha: Matr devoh bhavah; pitr devoh bhavah; acharya devoh
bhavah; athithi devoh bhavah, meaning, in effect that one must
treat one's mother as god, father as god, teacher as god and
guest as god - and in that order. That is our sanatana dharma.
The world athithi - a-thithi - means one who has arrived without
warning, the unexpected one. The uninvited one. Even he, it is
said, must be treated as god. One does not treat a guest, whether
uninvited or invited, with anything other than respect. If that
be the case, how much attention should one extent to an invited
guest?
Ghulam Ali was an invited guess He did not turn up at a concert
hall and ask to be honoured. He was invited to come and came.
For that he was treated with cold disrespect. It has infuriated
our liberals.
>From what has appeared in the press the Shiv Sainiks behaved in
their accustomed manner on the grounds that Pakistan does not
permit Indian artists to perform there and so there is no reason
why Pakistani performers should be permitted to perform in India.
But some Indian artists are disputing this. They claim that they
have performed in Lahore and Karachi and have been well-received.
And the point is made that even if Indian artists are unwanted in
Pakistan or have been treated shabbily, there is no reason why
Indian should behave so boorishly.
Now there are three kinds of Pakistanis. At the lowest level are
the serfs, the poorest of the poor, who couldn care less about
these niceties. All that they are concerned about is their daily
bread or chappatti or naan.
Then comes the small middle class, worldly-wise and sophisticated
who would like to listen to good music from wherever it comes,
including India. It has no hang-ups. But then there is the third
class, the feudal aristocracy, the powerful landlords, in a word
the Pakistani establishment which hates India, hates Hindus and
hates everything Indian, which thinks it is only appropriate to
name allegedly Pakistani missiles after those barbarian invaders
such as Ghori, Ghazni and Babar, and enjoys a hearty laugh at it.
It is this establishment that rules Pakistan.
It is this same establishment that has waged three wars against
India, even if it lost all three. It is this establishment which
supported and financed the Khalistani movement that was
responsible for the deaths of thousands in Punjab. Again it is
this same establishment that has been waging a low level
terrorist war in Jammu and Kashmir and has been responsible for
the murder of hundreds of innocents.
For 50 long years India has put up with this heinous and
unrelenting establishment, turning the right cheek when slapped
on the left one. India has been a long suffering neighbour; to
the best of one's knowledge there has been no attempt on the part
of Pakistani artists to protest at their government's inhumanity.
Entire families are shot and killed and thousands of Pandits have
been displaced from their ancestral homes and to the best of my
knowledge - and I am willing to be corrected - no Ghulam Ali has
raised his voice at Pakistani inhumanity.
Now I am told that Ghulam Ali is a poet and not a politician and
I should not transfer a politician's sins on the head of a poet.
But a poet, I respectfully submit, is also a citizen and he has a
duty to perform. When innocent people are ruthlessly mowed down
in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan-supported terrorists, a poet
must raise his voice in protest. He must not take shelter under
the bogus theory that as a poet he is not accountable to what his
country's politicians are doing.
Then there is that other theory that holds that one can reform
the Pakistani establishment by being nice to Pakistani artistes.
Those that profess it are welcome to their delusion. Fifty years
of being nice hasn't helped one wee bit. We are only fooling
ourselves. Islamabad is ruled by barbarians, not by gentlemen.
Then there is yet another group in Indian which insists that even
if Pakistani terrorists kill our fathers and mothers, rape our
sisters and dispossess our brothers, we should not take offence.
After all, aren we inviting poets, and isn poetry the
universal language of good men? That, alas, just isn true.
I do not know Ghulam Ali; for all I know, he may be god's good
man. I am sure Jansher Khan, the squash legend from Pakistan, who
wants to come to India but now won't, is also a good man. For
that matter there may be many good men and women in Pakistan who
want to be at peace with India. It is their duty to throw out the
animals who run the Pakistani establishment and tell Indians in
unmistakable terms that they are sick of their politicians and
want to live in peace with their neighbours.
Either they are unwilling to say so or are frankly afraid. The
latter is understandable but that does not mean that we have to
be indifferent, to our fellow countrymen being murdered, our
women being raped and whole villages looted.
The Gujral Doctrine was well-meant but is infructuous. Barbarians
understand only one language: power. Not bleeding hearts.
I ask my liberal friends to put themselves in the shoes of those
who were killed only recently in a Kashmiri village. If it
happened to them, how would they feel? Our liberals do not feel;
they are also so busy feeling superior morally, that they cannot
emote to the distress of the Kashmiri Pandits.
I am told that Pakistani-supported terrorists kill Muslims as
well as Hindus; yes, they do and the killing of an innocent
Kashmir Muslim to me is as much as a cause of distress and anger
as the killing of a Hindu.
Atal Behari Vajpayee is a confused man. He must have a clear
policy towards Pakistan. That policy should extend to all
Pakistanis, whether they are killers, poets or others. Hitler was
a great fan of classical music, but that did not prevent him from
sending nine million Jews to the gas chambers. A Lahore audience
might have given a rousing reception to Pandit Jasraj but one can
be sure that same audience fully approved the terrorist
activities of the Pakistan government in Jammu & Kashmir.
My simple solution to all the controversies that have risen over
the Ghulam Ali episode is this: as long as Pakistan has not come
to the terms with us, let us forget its existence. They don't
have to invite our artists and we shouldn't invite theirs. If I
were Atal Babu, I would give a solemn warning to Pakistan: next
time Islamabad-financed terrorists kill even a single soul in
Jammu & Kashmir, it should expect massive retaliation. Our
present namby pamby attitude is making us the laughing stock of
the country, if not the world.
(M V Kamath, veteran political commentator, takes on all comers)
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