Just because it is an-other country..

Just because it is 'Pakistan' an-other country, it’s so easy to speak of war or debate on war – or for that matter think and worry about war. The overriding emotion is -Punish the offender, teach a lesson for the hurt generated, give back as much hurt if not more and so on.

It’s always easy to talk about ‘other’ than the ‘self’; irrespective of the situation involving individual issues or collective issues. If my watch falls from somebody else’s hand and gets broken, then I become livid and may even slap that person for being careless. If it falls from my child’s hand, my reaction is less hurtful, but I may still vent my anger and shout at the child. But if the same watch is dropped from my own hand, I do not slap or shout ‘me’. I accept ‘my fault’, try to forget the incidence by searching for an alternative and resolve to be more careful.

When it is ‘Pakistan’, we are so unified on our offensive. It should be war, teach them lesson. Whom actually war will hurt? The people who will die, do they have a role in hurting us? The people who will go maimed due to bombing or bullets, have they hurt us? Their economy will shatter and thousands will go unemployed and hungry. Have they hurt us?

If not war at least stop all relation with them- With whom? Stop the trains plying between the countries? The thousands of innocent people who got to visit their near and dear ones on this side or that side of the border, have they hurt us? Stop the cultural exchanges? Do the artists on both sides who will be debarred by this move have hurt us? Stop the export and import? Do the common people who will not get their necessities on both sides have hurt us? Stop the pipeline project with Afghanistan? Do the people in Afghanistan have hurt us?

Can the hurt inflicted on one group of innocent people be healed by hurting another group of innocent people? Can one wound on one part of our body be healed by creating another wound on another part of the body? The healing operation is always done on the same wound, on the same part of the body; after knowing the root cause.

Because ten armed persons could ‘hurt’ us in the name of ‘Pakistan’ we ‘can’ think of directly or indirectly hurting the innocent out there. Did we think the same way when armed men ‘here’ did the same in the name of ‘Khalistan’ or ‘Gorkha land’ or ‘Bodoland’? Was it so easy to talk of war? Did we stop the trains to those areas? Did we stop the economic projects out there? No, we did something else. If today people in the J&K have come back to elect a government and not talking of ‘separation’ and ‘hurt’, it not because we isolated ‘them’ or fought a war with ‘them’.

Ten human beings create havoc for three days in a country of billion? Is the matter only about ‘them’ or is it a matter and more importantly about ‘us’? One gold medallist in the country of a billion and that too after 60 years; who openly attributes his success not ‘to our system’ but ‘despite our system’. Do we have any ‘them’ for this? Are these two situations completely unrelated?

We definitely are suffering from a deep wound and it is paining a lot. But do we need an operation out ‘there’ or ‘here’ is a moot question.