Banning Pakistani Artistes from Working In Indian Films is NOT Wrong: Major Gaurav Arya
Here's the latest update from the world of Bollywood. We bet you wouldn't want to miss this. Read on for details... The controversy continues...
Whether Pakistani
artistes should be banned in Indian films or not has been the 'Talking Point'
in Bollywood.
According to a letter in storypick, Major Gaurav Arya an army veteran has
opined that it not be a wrong move to impose such a ban.
We reproduce the letter:
Our boys have just about returned from across the Line of Control after a very
successful surgical strike. The entire nation is delirious with joy; the entire
nation, except a few.
Today, I was part of a panel discussion in JNU, interestingly called
“Intellectual Terrorism”. The term is self-explanatory, though wide-ranging. I
will discuss one type of intellectual terrorism here. The proponents of this
type of terror are to found in every walk of life, but the roots of this
disease are embedded in some institutions of higher learning. More of that some
other time.
Karan Johar wants
to know if asking Fawad Khan to go back to Pakistan will stop terror. Mahesh
Bhatt joins the chorus by saying “stop terrorism, not talks” implying that we
must continue to talk to Pakistan. The cricket board will continue to play
matches with Pakistan. Certain business houses will continue to do business
with Pakistan. All this, while our soldiers are dying on the border.
Will sending
Pakistani artists back, stopping cricket and business with Pakistan actually
end terror from Pakistan? No, it most certainly will not. But there is an
emotion called solidarity. You cannot make films, play cricket and do
business as if everything is fine, because it is not. It makes the soldier
wonder aloud, “Why should I alone bear the weight of conflict?”
This conflict
between India and Pakistan is not the soldier’s personal war. He is dying and
killing for you and me. Imagine a situation in which the soldier felt, and
behaved, like Karan Johar and Mahesh Bhatt? Imagine if a soldier walked up to
his superior and said, “Sir, while I am dying on the Line of Control,
these people are going about as if everything is absolutely fine between the
two countries.”
How many of you
would like it if a soldier felt that this was not his personal war, and he,
like Mahesh Bhatt, should walk across the Line of Control and shake hands with
a Pakistani soldier? Why should he alone sacrifice for India, when others were
making merry?
A soldier will
die before the thinks of such treason, but its certainly food for thought,
isn’t it?
Patriotism and
sacrifice are not the sole responsibility of the soldier. India is Mahesh
Bhatt’s country, as much as it is the soldier’s.
The United States
boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980, and the Russians did likewise when they
boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. This is what happens when national
interest is held paramount. And this is what must happen now.
For 70 years, Pakistan has been killing Indian citizens. Are we so inured
to the pain of our fellow brethren that making a movie or playing a cricket match
takes precedence over a soldier’s mourning home?
18 families have
been shattered like glass. Not a word for them by our Bollywood royalty, mind
you. But the pain of Fawad Khan’s departure is too much to bear, it seems. A
tweet in support of Pakistani artists is mandatory.
These directors
and producers will have you believe that before Rahat Fateh Ali Khan sang for
Bollywood, there was no music of significance in the Hindi film industry. The
cricket board is so busy making money that a widow’s silent sob and an orphan’s
scream does not matter. What actually matters are day and night matches between
India and Pakistan. The most keenly contested sporting event in history, they
say; even better than the Ashes.
And the soldiers?
Well, as far as they are concerned, they are on another planet, far removed
from the glitzy Bollywood studios, and the teak panelled walls of the stately
boardrooms of the BCCI. The blood, the mud, the screams and the exploding
gunpowder are just distant and inconvenient, not very different from traffic
during the Mumbai monsoons. Life must go on.
It’s easy to ask
for peace when you are a thousand miles away from the Line of Control, and your
primary concerns are which party to attend this evening and where to get
financing for your next film.
Peace is not a
punch line. It is the end result of war.
There is a
10-year-old girl, Aditi, who understands the nation and its ebbs and flows far
better than Mahesh Bhatt and Karan Johar. See her letter attached. Then see the
poster made by Mahesh Bhatt, which he so proudly displays.
I leave it to you to decide who speaks for you. My vote goes to Aditi. This
little angel has the spirit of a soldier.
The others have
mala fide intent.
Jai Hind.
Thumbnail Image Source: ok, karachista & adeez