I agree; Indians seem very insincere and not to be trusted based on these actions.
The Indian tour – starting off on a poor note
From Shahed Sadullah
LONDON: If this is the amount of sincerity with which India approaches the issue of peace with Pakistan, so much so for peace. With Pakistan making its first cricket tour of India in six years, the Indians came up with the disgraceful ploy of trying to start the tour with a underhand political trick.
The trick was to try and embarrass the government of Pakistan by playing the first match at the north-eastern Indian town of Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama has been living in exile for the past 42 years. The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, fled Tibet during the time of the Chinese take over and is seen by the Chinese as a focal point for the movement against them in Tibet.
China, of course is Pakistan’s closest ally. The organisers of the match had invited the Dalai Lama to be the chief guest at the match which starts on Thursday, and it would have been deeply embarrassing for the government of Pakistan if an official side representing the country were to be put in a situation where it would have no alternative but to be meeting and shaking hands with the Dalai Lama.
The situation was averted when the Dalai Lama himself pulled out of what would have been a deeply uncomfortable situation for all concerned and for this, there can be small thanks to the government of India and the Indian cricket authorities.
It was fortunate that the Dalai Lama realised that he was being used by his hosts as a political pawn and as soon as he was informed about Pakistan’s reservations about this situation, he decided not to accept the invitation of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association.
That however, does not exonerate the Indian cricket authorities and their government from the most blatant malafide intent in planning this stupid charade. One blames both in equal measure because it is inconceivable that something like this could have been planned by the cricket authorities alone, the itinerary having been the subject of considerable input from the Indian Foreign Office and finalised only after the Indian Foreign Minister, then visiting Pakistan, himself had his input into the situation.
Pakistan is the first ever visiting cricket team to be asked to play in Dharamsala and the idea of having the Dalai Lama as the chief guest is bizarre simply because the Dalai Lama, for all his spiritual knowledge, would probably not know enough about cricket to make up his mind whether the action took place in the stands and was to be viewed from the ground or whether it was the other way around. In terms of total absurdity, the equivalent would perhaps be to get Inzamam ul Haq to preside over a conference of nuclear physicists; or better still, to invite the Pope to be the chief guest at a football match in which the England side was led by King Henry VIII.
There must be at least fifty towns and cities in all parts of India bigger than Dharamsala whose cricketing credentials would beat Dharamsala by a mile and a bit. The ICC, whose priorities have the same amount of clarity as a boxer recovering from the full count, should have come down hard on such pointless perfidy, for it is about as blatant an attempt to utilise the international cricketing stage for political point scoring as any one is likely to find.
One would have thought that this sort of thing brings the game into much greater disrepute than taking three steps towards an umpire while appealing, and the fact that this may have been the result of a process in which the Indian cricket authorities were not the only ones involved, is neither here noir there. If the Board of Control for Cricket in India allows itself to be politically manipulated so shamelessly, it must carry the can for that shame and for letting itself and the noble game whose interests it is supposed to safeguard, to be thus abused.
Coupled with the Ahmedabad issue, it has left a very poor taste in the mouth, none of which reflects the sincerity with which the Pakistan government, cricket authorities and public had welcomed the Indians in Pakistan last year. It is when one sees such basic flaws in the Indian mindset towards Pakistan that one wonders where any peace process can possibly lead.
Comparisons are often made between the subcontinent and Europe and it is blithely wondered that if peace can come to Europe, if Germany and Israel can be at peace, why not India and Pakistan. All that one can say is that if the Germans had wanted a visiting sporting team from Israel to play on the fields of Belsen or Auschwitz, peace would have been a distant dream.
