India Uncut
This blog has moved to its own domain. Please visit IndiaUncut.com for the all-new India
Uncut and bookmark it. The new site has much more content and some new sections, and you can read about them here and here. You can subscribe to full RSS feeds of all the sections from here.
This blogspot site will no longer be updated, except in case of emergencies, if the main site suffers a prolonged outage. Thanks - Amit.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Bring 'em on
Mumbai Mirror reports:
What is most bizarre is that our government doesn't even have the balls to "officially label" Miandad as persona non grata, as "that could provoke a Pakistani reaction". Have the courage of your conviction, gentlemen, one way or another. You lead a big country, and such petty behaviour belittles it.
Two days after Javed Miandad confirmed that his son Junaid would marry Dawood Ibrahim's daughter Mahrooq, the Indian government has decided to treat him as persona non grata.While not officially labelling them thus, as that could provoke a Pakistani reaction, it's been decided that for all practical purposes he will be considered 'unacceptable and unwelcome' in India.What this means is that from now on, all of Miandad's requests for an Indian visa will be politely turned down.I find this quite ridiculous. In a civilized society, you punish people only for their crimes, not for who they might be related to. Pakistan has also denied visas to a lot of Indians for flimsy reasons, but that does not mean that we get dragged down to their level. It defies logic that after welcoming Pervez Musharraf, whose government shelters Dawood, we deny Miandad a visa. (I was in favour of Musharraf's visit, of course, and will miss Miandad's entertaining buffoonery if he doesn't visit again.)
What is most bizarre is that our government doesn't even have the balls to "officially label" Miandad as persona non grata, as "that could provoke a Pakistani reaction". Have the courage of your conviction, gentlemen, one way or another. You lead a big country, and such petty behaviour belittles it.
