It doesn’t make sense

The newspapers these days have almost a daily coverage on Sania Mirza’s marriage to Shoaib Mallik, the Pakistan cricketer. It is a celebrity wedding and there is controversy; so newspapers have a right to capitalise on this. It is a matter of circulation and profits for them.

Why should there be such controversy? Isn’t it their personal choice 'whom to marry'? The controversy is because she is marrying a Pakistani and anything related to Pakistan is paranoia these days. (The feelings are mutual)

I remember an incident that was narrated by one of my friends narrated. He is the country head of a multinational IT firm in India. He had a technical expert coming over for a project and he was by roots a Pakistani though he has never been to Pakistan as his father had migrated to US. It took an enormous effort to get the visa cleared. Then the local police insisted that he could not move out of the hotel room, except to attend office. They posted two police men outside his hotel room. This young lad had to be in this state of house (hotel) arrest for almost a month. Almost at the end of his project, he decided to go for a picnic with his friends for a drive out.

He sent an SMS to the local Police Superintend as he could not get him on phone. Within an hour the matter became a security emergency and quite a lot of harassment to his local sponsors and him. He had to be packed out of the country within a day!

It is true that both countries are not on good terms and forces of destabilisation are at work everywhere. We agree that we need to be careful that 26/11 is not repeated.

But does it mean that we have to have these extreme reaction in anything related with Pakistan and vice versa? There is no reason why Sania is not allowed a visa to visit the hometown of her would be fiancé and there was no sense it kicking up the controversy on the participation of Pakistani Cricketers in IPL.

Doesn’t it make sense to keep the tension low and encourage better interaction between both the countries without dilution of security controls? For example we have very strict verification process when we issue a passport. But, on the basis of the standing of the person (which is clearly defined and traceable) who issues a testimony there is of course a relaxation.

This is not an exception based on nepotism but an exceptional process of risk mitigation. If we find that such exceptional process can help more avenues for healthy interaction and such exceptions don't affect security concerns, we should try to encourage it. This can only help to strengthen both the countries.

Let us also ask ourselves some hard questions on the underlying causes of this mutual distrust. Don’t factors like religious intolerance, political expediency, attempt to distract public attention, machinations of a variety of interest groups and the self interest of the arms lobby contribute to this sustained tension?

Some of us need to rise above these biases, to build up a voice of reason, a voice of tolerance and a voice of compromise if we have to see a de-escalation of tension at the border and deep in our hearts. May be we need a few more marriages like that of Sania and Shoaib, some more train rides like the one Vajpayee initiated and a lot more cricket. The idea is to allow more opportunities for active engagement and more occasions to come together as human beings; sharing joy and sorrow. It is then that we can bring about disarmament of minds. But it is worth it.

“Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.” ~ Jimmy Carter