No matter what the governments do to improve the ties between India and Pakistan, there is always a huge chunk of Indian society which hates Pakistan and its people from the core of their hearts.
So, why is this the scenario?
Is it because of the high tension which existed between the two countries, until a few years back? Or is it because of a bunch of people who carry out terrorist activities and associate themselves with Pakistan?
Even if the answer is ‘yes’ to both the above questions, it’s still not justifiable why we need to hate the entire country.
The major reason why Indians have developed a natural hatred towards our neighboring country is because of political parties like RSS, Akhil Bhartiya Hindi Mahasabha and Shiv Sena. If these parties had not spread so much of abhorrence against Pakistan, the way we feel about them would have been a lot different.
Working on the principle of vote bank policies, these parties are ready to go to any extent to come into power. They bend the term ‘religion’ in the most twisted way possible to get the everyones attention. Blaming them entirely wouldn’t be the best thing to do either, because even today there are many people with extremist Hindutva ideologies who blindly support such parties.
The most recent example of a political party showing disgust for our neighboring country was when Shiv Sena slammed Naseeruddin Shah for his remarks on the strained relationship of the two countries.
In an interview, the Bollywood actor showed regret on the unhealthy relation which the two countries have. He also said in the interview that he visits Pakistan every now and then because he believes “it is very important to have a person-to-person contact”.
To this, Shiv Sena reacted through their journal ‘Saamana’, saying, “The answer to Shah’s question on why is there so much hatred for Pakistan can be given by those who lost their near and dear ones during the 26/11 attacks. Pakistan continues to engage in bloodshed. Not only 26/11, the Delhi Parliament attack and terrorist attacks before that too were masterminded from Pakistan.”
They also went to ahead to add, “In spite of all this, if you say that there should be no hatred for Pakistan, should we ignore the past violence that has been committed on Indian soil and what the country is planning to do in future?”
Were Naseeruddin Shah’s statements this offensive that he had to face such a backlash? His only concern was the lack of peace between the countries, and that too couldn’t go down nicely with Shiv Sena. These people keep on trying to evoke anger in the masses and hence defy all chances of bridging the huge gap which exists between India and Pakistan.
On one hand, there are people who want to spread love and harmony. And on the other there are people like these, whose only objective is to create tension and make us fight with each other. Imagine our country without these bodies of hatred, I bet it will be beautiful.
