Dumping reason: Chidambaram slams Pak players’ exclusion from IPL

Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement on the exclusion of Pakistani cricketers from the third edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is unfortunate, for this largely undoes the good work began by IPL bosses. The big guns of industry and cinema had rightly given a snub to the Pakistanis, and just to the Pak cricketers. It is a well-known fact that this is a nation whose state, military, and society support and lionize the bloodthirsty jihadis. The Indian Government should have tried to make Pakistan a pariah state by highlighting this fact but, thanks to Muslim appeasement and a pusillanimous foreign policy, it has not done so. Worse, when some private individuals attempted to take a step in that direction, the ruling United Progressive Alliance is resisting it.
“I think it is a disservice to cricket that some of these players were not picked. I don’t know why the IPL teams acted in the manner they acted. But certainly to suggest that there was a hint or nudge from the government is completely untrue,” Chidambaram told a news channel a week after the auction where all the Pak players were ignored.
It may be “a disservice to cricket” if the world T20 champions are ignore in an event, but it is surely a service to mankind to stigmatize the citizens of a country whose state and society nurture and glorify mass-murderers; there is no other way to describe jihadis. The world needs to boycott the Pakistanis to force them promote terror. It was international pressure which played a big part in goading South Africa to end the reprehensible apartheid policy. By the way, this policy in no way hurt anybody outside South Africa. Now that Islamic terror has become a threat to peace all over the world, there is no reason why the Pakistan, the engine house of jihad, should be treated with kid gloves.
Regrettably, Chidambaram’s views are shared by others as well. Shah Rukh Khan, who owns Kolkata Knight Riders, is also unhappy about the exclusion of Pak players. He said, “I truly believe they [Pakistan players] should have been chosen.” A few days ago, Surjit S. Bhalla, a liberal intellectual, lamented about the exclusion of Pak players. He wrote in Business Standard on January 23, “The politicians believe that after the terror attacks of last year, the popular public wants to punish all Pakistanis, regardless of race, color, or religion. Even if the public thinks that way, does it make sense for the government to cater to such base instincts?”
The problem with liberals like Bhalla is that they dogmatically stick to their beliefs which have been disproved by facts. If the public wants all Pakistanis to be punished, it is not the result of any “base instincts” but of commonsense and reason. Sadly, liberals have bid adieu to commonsense and reason. What is sadder is that the powers that be tend to follow the liberal rather than the reasonable viewpoint.