By Shashi Agarwal
Indo-Pak rivalry is world known and even cricket could not remain distant from it. Cricket has suffered due to tensions between the 2 countries, limiting the number of matches between the two countries . IPL even saw the Pakistani players staying away from it. But then Pakistan team toured India and still there are no clear explanations on why the pakistani players are kepy away from IPL, given the likes of Wasim Akram,Aleem Dar etc. have joined the party.
The clash between the two sides is a high voltage drama and the outcomes do affect the people. Several cases of aggression are reported and police has to come to action.Recently, after the Indo-Pak match in the Asia Cup, the Uttar Pradesh police filed a case against 67 Kashmiri students residing in Meerut under Section 124a, 153a and 427 of the Indian Penal Code.The section 124a leads to imprisonment or fine if someone attempts to excite disaffection towards the Indian government.The UP government has finally withdrawn their case but this incident raises several questons.
From students point of view, it is fare enough to say that they have the rights to support any team they want. There are several cricket fans in India, who supports Australia in their match against India. It is India vs Pakistan which has made this big issue.Supporting a particular player like Afridi is different and supporting Pakistani team against India is totally different. The police claims that they were shouting ‘PAKISTAN ZINDABAD’, means long live Pakistan, which will definetely hurt Indians especially when India lost the match. This resulted in a fight with other college students. The scenario would have been different if India would have won that game. They were college students and were matured enough to understand this.
But this was surely not the way the police and the college management team should have dealt with the matter. This could have ruined the future of the students after the college management threw them off the campus and sent them back home after the incident . They should have better consulted the students individually which could have led them to realise their mistakes.
Or was it the case of Kashmiris attached with it that it was dealt this way. The people of Kashmir have had liking for Pakistan, thanks to the policies of Indian government for them.But whatever it may be, it has left us all to ponder over this issue and look the mistakes in the system , society or our mentality.
