(July 9, 1999, Bombay)
In Defense of Dilip Kumar
It is bad enough that Bal Thackeray and his rabid followers have chosen
the war in Kargil to revive their old tirade against members of the Muslim
community, this time by asking the veteran actor, Dilip Kumar to prove his
Indianness by returning an award given to him years ago by the Pakistan
government for his cultural work and for promoting friendship between the
people of India and Pakistan. That both factions of the Congress Party have
decided to parrot Thackeray in this regard shows the depths to which people
will sink when election campaigns begin in the midst of war hysteria.
We want to remind the people of this country that the war in Kargil is not
irreversible. If it was, then the logical conclusion is that both nations
will destroy each other with nuclear weapons. The fact is that no war
between India and Pakistan can be won or lost conclusively. In other words,
like it or not, negotiations and rebuilding the peace process is the only
option. People like Dilip Kumar, the members of various Indo-Pak citizens'
peace initatives and the peace marchers who have embarked upon a three
month padyatra from Pokhran to Sarnath are a bridge over troubled waters.
Those who want to attack these messengers of peace do so at their own
peril. The irony that hate mongers disguise themselves as patriots while
painting those who talk of peace as traitors, is an irony that future
generations( if there are any) will surely remark upon.
The day will come when the Dilip Kumars and the hundreds of people in
India and Pakistan who stand for peace and reconciliation in times of war
will be hailed as the real patriots, and all those who bay for the blood of
imagined enemies will be seen for what they are, traitors of the human race.
signed by:
Anand Patwardhan
Teesta Setalvad
Nikhil Wagle
Nalini Malani
Jayant Kripalani
(more to be added soon)
Return to the website of India Pakistan Citizens Against War in Kargil