This is in response to Sarwar Bari’s article titled ‘Arch-enemies of Jinnah and Gandhi’ published on August 15th
KARACHI: This is in response to Sarwar Bari’s article titled ‘Arch-enemies of Jinnah and Gandhi’ published on August 15th. The writer has managed to brilliantly bring to the fore the ideologies behind the failure of the neighbouring countries of Pakistan and India.
The rise of extremism, or rather religiosity, in Pakistan during the rule of Ziaul Haq and recently in India with the rise of the BJP government has unfortunately held back the progress of both the nations. Mass killings of minorities, lack of freedom of expression and human rights violations in a number of ways — child labour, abuse, etc — has been governing the state of affairs of these arch-rivals.
What the founding fathers, Gandhi and Jinnah, envisioned the countries to become has been lost, as Mr Bari puts it “Sadly, the followers and those who had some similarities with Gandhi and Jinnah gradually became irrelevant, while the archenemies of the two great leaders managed to seize power.”
However, there is only one thing I would differ with Mr Bari on is his optimism for the future of the two countries. “Should the people of Pakistan and India want to live in peace and have a prosperous life, they must then rise against the archenemies of Gandhi and Jinnah in their respective countries. Let us strive to make the souls of both the countries’ founders rest in peace,” he pens, but in reality, the masses, the majority are veiled with the cloak of religiosity and it’s unlikely they will be taking it off.
Basim Zahid
Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2017.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.
