A couple of days ago 'To Afridi, with love' was a Facebook favourite. It was forwarded via emails and I even put it up on my blog. Today suddenly, Afridi has become the enemy all over again! Scroll down the Facebook homepage and you will find this Samaa TV video that has caused an outburst in India.
I am Indian. I should feel ashamed, hurt and angry. But I pause to think, to reason before I judge. Had Ricky Ponting made a statement like this one, we would have written it off. It would have spawned off a whole new set of Ponting jokes. But because it's the Pakistan captain in question, we do not want to let go. Videos such as this one have created more hatred among the people of these two countries than wars have.
From what I know, Samaa TV is the Pakistani version of one of our Hindi news channels (and I won't take names here) that does every bit to sensationalise a story. They got him to speak on the phone, played the conversation to a studio audience and obviously directed them to clap on cue and shout pro-Pakistan slogans. They did their bit to sell their tape and time. Of course, our news channels didn't want to let that go. With little to do after the World Cup, they thought of stirring up a controversy and screened the video in every bulletin, transcribed the conversation and published it on every news website.
I agree with Afridi when he says, "The Indian media is very negative." As for Indian hearts not being as big as those of the Pakistanis (or Muslims as he points out, forgetting that there are many Muslims who are Indians), probably they did not have much of a chance to bask in our warmth. Afridi and his team had to leave in a hurry, else we would have surely invited them to our parties, taken them out for dinners and given them tickets for Kerala holidays. We'll welcome them again and show them how large our hearts are.
From what I know, Samaa TV is the Pakistani version of one of our Hindi news channels (and I won't take names here) that does every bit to sensationalise a story. They got him to speak on the phone, played the conversation to a studio audience and obviously directed them to clap on cue and shout pro-Pakistan slogans. They did their bit to sell their tape and time. Of course, our news channels didn't want to let that go. With little to do after the World Cup, they thought of stirring up a controversy and screened the video in every bulletin, transcribed the conversation and published it on every news website.
I agree with Afridi when he says, "The Indian media is very negative." As for Indian hearts not being as big as those of the Pakistanis (or Muslims as he points out, forgetting that there are many Muslims who are Indians), probably they did not have much of a chance to bask in our warmth. Afridi and his team had to leave in a hurry, else we would have surely invited them to our parties, taken them out for dinners and given them tickets for Kerala holidays. We'll welcome them again and show them how large our hearts are.
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