India
bowls for better ties with
Pakistan By Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI - Millions of fans in India and
Pakistan are cheering after the Board of Control
for Cricket in India (BCCI) invited the
neighboring national team to play a three-match
series of one-day games in December, ending a
five-year hiatus as the two countries broke off
sporting ties after the 2008 Mumbai terror
attacks.
Not everyone associated with the
sport shares the enthusiasm, however, and the
attempt to defuse the political rancor that
eclipsed the spirit of the game has split the
Indian political and sporting community down the
middle.
Former Indian skipper Sunil
Gavaskar has openly criticized the BCCI's recent
decision to invite the Pakistani national team to
India. "I am a Mumbaiker," or resident of Mumbai,
Gavaskar told
the media, "and I felt
very, very strongly the way my city was held to
ransom."
The 72-hour Mumbai siege in
November 2008 by 10 Pakistan-based militants, who
attacked high-profile targets such as the Taj
Mahal Palace hotel, a hospital and a railway
station, left 166 people dead and more than 300
injured.
There has been no bilateral
cricket between India and Pakistan since 2007 even
though the two have sporadically faced each other
in multi-team events such as the World Cup and
Asia Cup. The dark shadow of the Mumbai attacks
has continued to loom large over the bilateral
landscape ever since, with the Indian cricket team
refusing to tour Pakistan in 2009.
Intermittent attempts by the Pakistan
Cricket Board and the BCCI to get the two teams on
field have invariably been scuppered by strong
political and public resistance.
Gavaskar
said he was piqued that even after the extradition
of a key suspect, Abu Jundal, from Saudi Arabia,
who spilled the beans about the role of state
actors in Pakistan in the attack, there has been
no action from Islamabad, only denials. Former
Indian cricketer and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
leader Kirti Azad has similarly opposed the
series.
The lone surviving alleged
Pakistani terrorist, Ajmal Amir Kasab, is
currently in judicial custody in a Mumbai jail
pending trial.
Many political parties,
including the right-wing BJP, the country's
principal opposition party, are of the view that
Islamabad must demonstrate its seriousness in
bringing the perpetrators of the November 2008
attack to justice before India responds with any
friendly overtures.
However, a sizable
section of opinion suggests that banning sporting
events - even as New Delhi continues to conduct a
diplomatic dialogue with Islamabad - seems
incongruous. Hosting a cricket series, they feel,
could be a great lubricant for friendlier ties
that could feed into the larger peace process.
While resolving hardcore political issues such as
Kashmir is vital for the bilateral peace process,
say the peaceniks, civil-society engagement -
through sports, cinema and other cultural
activities - can also help soothe the bitterness
between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, which
have fought three wars since their independence
from Britain in 1947.
"Both stakeholders
must make a conscious effort to bury the past and
move on," opines Dr Raj Shekhar, visiting
professor of political science at Delhi
University. "Peace between India and Pakistan will
not only directly benefit both countries but is
also vital for the geopolitical stability of the
entire region."
This year, Pakistan
conceded most-favored-nation status to India,
facilitating cross-border trade and investment.
The two countries are also putting in place a
much-relaxed visa regime as a result of which
traveling between India and Pakistan by air and
land has become a far less cumbersome process.
With this sentiment propelling the
relationship, experts say it would be imprudent
for India to oppose something as politically
neutral as cricket matches. In any case, both
countries have been engaging in sporting
activities. India hosted the International Cricket
Council World Cup semi-final in Mohali, Punjab,
while Pakistani field-hockey players have visited
India for World Series Hockey. And even though
Pakistani players were not a part of the auction
pool for the Indian Premier League cricket series,
former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram is the bowling
coach of the high-profile Kolkata Knight Riders
owned by Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan.
Even as the cricketing debate rages, a
parallel off-the-field political drama continues
with New Delhi's repeated attempts to press
Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of the 2008
terror attacks to justice continuing to come to
naught. A Pakistani court last week ruled that all
findings of the judicial commission that visited
India after the Mumbai attack were "illegal" and
could not be made part of the evidence against the
accused.
This development, fear analysts,
could culminate in the collapse of the trial
itself, which rests mainly on the judicial
confession made by Ajmal Qasab in India naming
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and six others for executing
the attack.
Pakistan's Federal
Investigation Agency had charge-sheeted seven
accused, including Lakhvi in 2009. The trial then
started in a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court but
has virtually been stalled, with the judges being
changed five times. The Rawalpindi court now rules
all findings of the panel are illegal and can't be
made part of evidence, as no cross-examination of
witnesses was allowed. This also brings into
question the evidentiary value of Ajmal Qasab's
judicial confession in India naming the seven
accused.
Ajit Doval, former chief of
India's Intelligence Bureau, said at a press
interaction that the trial in Pakistan was just
"an eyewash" and that the judiciary was
deliberately citing technical reasons to protect
the accused. "The judiciary in Pakistan is being
manipulated by the government there to protect the
accused. Even the prosecution is involved. The
judiciary isn't trying to look for facts to punish
the guilty," Doval said.
After disallowing
the commission that visited India this March from
cross-examining the witnesses in the case, New
Delhi could well end up reversing that decision
now to prevent the trial in Pakistan falling
apart. If the trial collapses, analysts fear,
there is a strong possibility of the key accused -
Lashkar-e-Tayyeba ( LeT) operational chief
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi - being acquitted.
No amount of cricket between the two
neighbors will then be able to calm the ensuing
tensions.
Neeta Lal is a widely
published writer/commentator who contributes to
many reputed national and international print and
Internet publications.
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