archive: The right line
The right line
M. V. Kamath
Mid-Day
July 8, 1999
Title: The right line
Author: M. V. Kamath
Publication: Mid-Day
Date: July 8, 1999
Has anybody been listening to the sound of laughter emanating from the
Saamna office? The Shiv Sena men are laughing their heads off and, I
am afraid, with good reason. Some months ago these men were roundly
castigated by our liberal media for digging up the cricket pitch at
Wankhede Stadium to prevent play between India and Pakistan. Strong
language was used. I defended the Shiv Sena's action. Not being a
liberal - certainly not of the drawing-room, media kind - I thought
that the Sena did absolutely the right thing.
Now see who's talking. Kapil Dev, the darling of our cricket crowd,
after a visit to the Kargil sector, says India should cut off all
sporting ties with Pakistan. He told MID-DAY, "We shouldn't even
think of having ties." Oh, really? For good measure, he added: "How
can you have a situation where, on one side you have soldiers fighting
their hearts out for your country and on the other our cricketers
playing against Pakistan'?"
Interestingly, Kapil happens to be on the board of directors of Sahara
India and India's next scheduled clash with Pakistan is in the fourth
edition of the Sahara Cup in Toronto in September.
It is not Kapil Dev alone who is demanding that we- stop playing
cricket with Pakistan. The Indian Express reports that Kapil's call
and his demand for scrapping the Sahara Cup has evoked widespread
support from a cross-section of the sporting community in the
country. The president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI), Raj Singh Dungarpur, under whose terms Indo-Pak Test cricket
relations resumed after a gap of almost 10 years, has described
Kapil's call as "very rational".
G S Ramchand, a former India cricket skipper, says that "with the
situation so grim, we shouldn't even think of having any sporting
exchanges with Pakistan". Michael Ferreira, former world billiards
champion, has said "it would be sacrilegious to the soldiers who are
dying for our country if we have sporting ties with such an
irresponsible nation".
But we still have our so-called liberals in the media whose wisdom
they expect others to honour. Take, for example, the sanctimonious
Times of India whose editorial writers seem to be living in another
day and age. It says that Kapil's call for India to boycott all
future cricket matches with Pakistan pending the resolution of the
Kargil conflict, "if implemented, could create a dangerous precedent".
here should be a limit to this sickening show of sanctimonious
humbug. I stood by the Sena when its men dug up the cricket pitch. I
stand by it today. I am not an admirer or supporter of the Sena, I
never was and I never will be, but on this issue I am cent per cent
with it.
To have any sporting contact with a nation whose soldiers mutilate
their prisoners of war before returning their bodies, is so despicable
that I can't imagine any of my media colleagues writing such an
editorial.
While I am at it, let me say a word or two about the Congresswallahs.
Mani Shankar Aiyar should note that the soldiers fighting on the
Kargil front are not "our boys" but our "men". If he does not know
the difference between 'boys' and 'men', he should not write his
pathetic articles that insult our soldiers. They are not playing
games on the hilltops to make money, as our cricketers do on the
fields of England. They are fighting a deadly war at grave risk to
their lives. Then there is that exquisite joker Natwar Singh whom the
Free Press Journal in righteous anger asked to "shut up".
As for Sonia Gandhi, the less said the better. The other day she
recalled how Jawaharlal Nehru called sessions of both Houses of
Parliament in 1962 to discuss the Chinese invasion. She forgets two
things. One, unlike at pre-sent, the Lok Sabha was functioning at
that time. Two, Nehru and his yes-man V K Krishna Menon had
thoroughly messed up our foreign policy; Nehru was desperately looking
for support.
In contrast, the Lok Sabha today stands dissolved. And this is
because Gandhi stabbed the government in the back. In the
circumstances, what we have is not a caretaker government but a proper
government, and let this sink into the minds of our Congressmen. Out
of courtesy, the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders called for an
all-party meeting which Gandhi chose not to attend on the grounds that
the notice was too short. Would she have attended if the Rajya Sabha
had been called, as she and her henchmen have been demanding?
The whole world is applauding Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee,
except the mean-minded Gandhi and her desperate party. She should
listen to what Romesh Diwan, professor of economics at the Rensselaer
Polytechnique Institute, New York, has to say. He was quoted in The
Statesman of July 1: "India is fortunate that Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee
is its prime minister at this juncture. One can't compliment him
enough on his wisdom; his insights, instincts and understanding has
put India on the path of greater strength..."
There should be a, limit to the utter nonsense spawned by our liberals
and our Congressmen and women. Our men (not boys) are fighting in
Kargil. Respect them.
Just thinking of what might have happened were a Jyoti Basu or a Sonia
Gandhi the prime minister at this point sends a shiver down my spine.
Thank god for Vajpayee.
(M V Kamath, veteran journalist, takes on all corners)
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