Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam, Vivek Gupta
Camera: Shiv Kumar Maurya
These days Navjot Singh Sidhu has been singing Sab Kare Toh Raasleela, Hum Kare Toh Character Dheela – a popular song from a Salman Khan movie. But the sad thing is that this time he can't even say Thhoko Taali.
The katha jor garam is that cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu defamed the country at Pakistan’s new prime minister Imran Khan’s oath-taking ceremony. It is okay if he attended the ceremony but what was the need to hug Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and sit beside Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) President at the event?
Now BJP had to act tough on the question of patriotism. However, even Punjab's Congress chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh raised a red flag over Sidhu hugging Qamar Bajwa. Captain Amarinder said that none but General Bajwa is responsible for the death of our heroes at the border. He gives orders to the Pakistan Rangers to open fire. Which means Sidhu hugged a ‘murderer’.
The Hashtag Attack #$*&..@%
And then our crime-time warriors, sorry our prime-time warriors, waged a war against Navjot Sidhu. The 'patriotic jawans' of the troll army on Twitter opened fire at Navjot Sidhu. They tweeted that Sidhu must be ashamed of his deed.
#SidhuHugsBajwa and #ShameOnSidhu started trending on Twitter. After being associated with the BJP for a long time, Navjot Sidhu had switched over to the Congress. So Congress had to bear the brunt of it too. #CongressWithTerrorists also trended on Twitter.
PM Modi’s Hug Diplomacy
Let us now have a look at the other side of the coin. Sidhu is a politician and a former cricketer and has played cricket with Imran Khan. How was it wrong on Sidhu's part to go to Pakistan after getting an invitation from Imran Khan?
And as far as hugging Pakistan Army Chief General Bajwa is concerned, what about this photo?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his return from a three-nation tour, all of a sudden, without prior notice and without any invitation, landed in Lahore. The then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif hugged PM Modi and welcomed him to Lahore. Was the situation at the border any different then? If not, how is PM’s hug a political diplomacy and Sidhu’s hug anti-national?
On 19 February 1999, the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had taken a bus tour to Pakistan and Nawaz Sharif had welcomed him. The same Nawaz Sharif who in a few months’ time backstabbed India in the form of the Kargil War.
So should PM Modi and Vajpayee also be punished by the Twitter Court for shaking hands with the ‘Enemy’?
No, it is the social media trolls – who in the name of nationalism can abuse and lynch anyone – who must be punished.
Even you must be answerable. You don't even understand that this is a propaganda which, more than adding fuel to a specific agenda, is aimed at paralysing your thoughts.
(This story was originally published on Quint Hindi)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)