In the aftermath of the Uri attack, jingoism and war-mongering in the right-wing Indian media has reached a fever pitch. I assume Arnab Goswami’s Pakistani contemporaries are stirring the Dar-ul-Islamic pot of kheer with equal fervour. I don’t know why hyper nationalists on both sides of the Indo-Pak border hate each other so much. We have so much in common…
1. Poverty, unemployment, corruption - we've got 99 problems, but minorities seem to be the greatest existential threat to our cultural fabric.
2. And ‘sickular’ journalists who don’t tow the establishment’s line.
3. Being a girl child is an egregious crime in both countries. We punish such impunity by killing the girl child while the fetus is still in the womb – or soon after she is born.
4. We both shackle a woman’s sexuality to the honour of her extended clan.
5. Pakistanis defend the fragile probity of a shaman with murder, we do the same for our cows.
6. Both celebrate murderers and thugs as martyrs.
7. Their government is in bed with Islamist terrorists, ours is in bed with Hindutva fascists.
8. And, finally, we have both endured insufferable political dynasties for three generations.
