SITUATIONER: From tea diktat to Bhera heckling – a lesson for Pakistani politicos

During the anti-Japanese war, every Chinese – from the central government head down to every cook – was issued one cotton-padded jacket for three years and one set of clothes for two years. However, everyone would try to be frugal and mend their clothes instead of requesting new ones in order to save up for the troops fighting on the frontlines.

Once, Chairman Mao Zedong’s jacket was worn beyond repair, but he wouldn’t have it replaced. A security guard quietly requested the Central Bureau for a warm cotton coat for the chairman. The request was granted.

The guard, however, couldn’t muster the courage to present the coat in person. When Mao was asleep, he replaced the old jacket with the new one. Mao woke up and enquired about the new coat. The guard explained. “This is too good for me. I cannot accept this. Get me my old jacket,” Mao said reprovingly.

“Chairman, it was worn beyond repair,” said the guard. “The new jacket has already been stitched for you, please wear it!” But Mao waved his hand gently and said, “Ok. Then get me a plain gray cotton jacket, which looks the same as yours.”

Mao would say, “Thrift should be the guiding principle in government expenditures.” And he would lead by example.

Wondering why would I tell this story? Read on!

Read Ahsan lets off hecklers with FIR ‘in the court of people’

Last week a short video clip kicked up a Twitterstorm. The clip showed a family heckling the federal planning minister, Ahsan Iqbal, at a McDonald’s restaurant near Bhera Interchange on Motorway M-2. The family – apparently Imran Khan’s supporters – shouted, “Thief, thief” in Iqbal’s face as staff and customers looked bemused.

The minister must have been embarrassed – and outraged, of course. But I’m sure he would have kept it on the hush if the clip had not gone viral on social media. Iqbal – himself an avid Twitter user – tweeted his version of the incident. He said the “elite-looking youthian” family “shouted like jahils”. “This nutjob is producing uncouth and uncivil followers like himself,” Iqbal wrote in the tweet taking a dig at Khan.

The seething tweet triggered a more spiteful riposte. Khan’s followers unleashed a torrent of vengeful and abusive tweets. The PML-N supporters did not sit quietly. And the result was a vicious verbal slugfest on Twitter.

Journalists and activists joined in. And thankfully, the dueling turned into a sober debate on tolerance [or lack thereof] in our politics. Some blamed the PTI’s big muckety-muck for introducing bigotry, intolerance, and malevolence in politics. Others would say the PML-N is having a dose of its own medicine because, according to them, it was the Sharif family that first brought in dirty tricks in politics in the 1990s.

While the debate was ongoing, Iqbal broke the news on Twitter that the family had visited him in his hometown to apologize. “The family involved in the Bhera incident came to Narowal. They were remorseful and repentant over their crass behavior. I’ve already announced not to pursue legal action against them…,” he wrote [Not sure if such heckling could be liable to legal action].

This “publicised apology” would have healed Iqbal’s bruised ego. However, the PTI social media brigade was not happy to see losing grist to their mill. They claimed the family might have been coerced into making the apology. The Twitter trend lost steam, nevertheless.

Another video clip of the Bhera episode surfaced during Eid. It showed the heckling wasn’t unprovoked. The clip shows a woman arguing with the minister, who turns away smirking before making a disparaging comment about the PTI chief. “Imran Khan is not even equal to the dust sticking under the shoes of Nawaz Sharif,” he says.

What happened next is unnecessary to repeat.

The new clip couldn’t get much traction as the devastating Karachi rains stole the social media spotlight.

What happened at Bhera Interchange cannot be condoned. Ahsan Iqbal is a public figure, but still the “elite” family had no right to violate his personal space and jeer at him. At the same time, Iqbal is a senior cabinet minister who has much more important issues to deal with instead of brooding over a trivial incident for three days.

Also, he shouldn’t have taken offense at the “chor, chor” slogan, because the Sharif brothers have frequently used such epithets for PPP’s Asif Zardari in the past. Now, Iqbal’s party colleagues have coined more abusive words like “imrandoos” and “youthias” for PTI followers. Above all, the language Iqbal used in his tweets after the Bhera incident also falls below the standards of common decency.

A leader has to lead by example.

Coming back to Mao’s story.

Read more ‘PTI supporters’ who jeered at Ahsan Iqbal apologise for their actions

At Bhera Interchange, the planning minister was eating at the high-end restaurant where most Pakistanis cannot afford to buy a meal. Paradoxically, the same minister advised his countrymen a few days back to “cut down on their tea intake by a cup or two” because Pakistan has to use borrowed dollars to foot its tea import bills.

Iqbal received a lot of flak for his tea diktat. The caffeinated drink, together with roti, is the only affordable fuel for the working class in Pakistan. It’s not a luxury, but what Iqbal was having might be considered a luxury for a majority of Pakistanis. How can you preach frugality without adopting it first!

A leader has to lead by example.

We know Pakistan is in the grip of a debilitating financial crisis. In such situations, Chairman Mao says, the government has to “…preserve all useful means of production and of livelihood, take resolute measures against anyone destroying or wasting them, oppose extravagant eating and drinking and pay attention to thrift and economy.”

Mao wouldn’t accept a new coat because his guard couldn’t have it too.

A true leader always leads by example.