The infamous "Tebbit test" was supposed to separate wheat from the chaff! It is an observational test where your loyalty to your country is measured by whether you support the home team or the visiting team in a cricket match. Fairly upright and honest British citizens of South Asian origin fail this test almost universally. There is no such concept as the Tebbit test in North America; however there is a vague concept of " Being American", and "Canadian Values". It is hard to define what these concepts actually mean but whatever their meaning , citizens of Asian descent and specially from the Indian subcontinent find it hard to measure up to those standards. Critics will immediately point out how they insist on dressing in a Salwar Kurta right in middle of New York city and how a lady dressed in a western style skirt will feel totally out of place in a mall in Brampton, Ontario. There are similar concerns about food habits ( smelly, spicy....) ; their insistence on watching Bollywood flicks ( silly song and dance) and speaking Punjabi, Hindi , Urdu, Gujarati.... etc. etc.
Other than making childish jokes about miserly corner shop Patel and big Pakistani families collecting welfare; generally these traits are well tolerated by the society. Certainly at an official level US is a melting pot ( although all that's melting is their economy) and Canada is officially a multicultural society. It is helped in part by the fact that Neither the US nor Canada have any worth while Cricket team and South Asian countries hardly count in Ice Hockey or Basketball. So no clashes occur to test loyalty there. People can support who ever ,when ever and nobody will question their allegiances!
Most of the Pakistani's have retained their pakistani passports even as they eagerly count the days when they become eligible to apply for the US/ Canadian ones. No one delays applying for it even for a day. Indian's can not retain their Indian passports, so as soon as they acquire the US/ Canadians ones; they move heaven and earth to apply for an Overseas Citizen of India card. Yet the respective US and the Canadian governments do not suspect their loyalties or hold back any rights of the citizenship. Bravo! This kind of trust in their fellow citizens automatically generates loyalty. Why it is important is because these very same people who fail the Tebbit test happily; who stick their neck out for their respective lands of origin get treated with disdain by those very dispositions as a matter of course and with complete disinterest on their lucky day. All one has to do is to walk into any mission of their land of origin and the complete weight of an inefficient bureaucracy gets thrown in their face. Trust, helpfulness, clarity of rules and regulations , human rights, equality , respect for an individual and empowerment are not the words that can easily come to mind.
Actually it is no different from what any other citizen of these countries experiences every day of their life in their home countries . There they have to fight to be treated with dignity or to be dealt with according to the rule of law and trusted as an equal citizen of the land. Sadly it does not happen very often. There they have a ruler and then they are the ruled . Although people constantly change roles from ruled to ruler depending on situation to situation. A taxi driver will think nothing of fudging the meter and grossly over charging the rider. Yet the same Taxi driver will get fleeced on the next intersection by the traffic constable , who has a quota of tickets to fill for his boss. The boss who has to supply a decent efficiency figure howsoever fictional it maybe , to his own boss. The taxi rider on the other hand will consider it normal to pay a bribe to the local lineman if that means he can cheat on his electricity bill. The lineman will share this bribe with his engineer who in turn gives up a portion for the executive engineer; who has to arrange for a hefty sum to pay off his boss or he will get transferred to boondocks. Everyone is engaged in usurping everyone's rights. In this situation whoever carries a bigger stick prevails. Truth , fairness , rule of law and decency becomes a constant casualty. They cheat each other , they cheat their society , they cheat their families and they cheat their country . Incessantly. If this is not treason what is?
This is how regular traitors are made out of regular patriots . Ironically western system on the other hand takes a " Tebbit traitor" and creates a patriot out of him by simply providing clear laws and equal treatment. I am reminded of all this by the recent act of the Pakistan government where they slyly sentenced Dr. Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison for assisting CIA in its search for Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The good Doctor made an error of judgement but should he not have received a fair trial instead of a Kangaroo court where he could not even receive legal assistance ? The question should also be asked when Scores of Pakistani generals helped CIA capture several other Terrorist leaders in Pakistan ,what crime did Dr. Afridi commit ? Afia Siddiqui, a pakistani national was captured and handed over to US without a trial by the same authorities. Why is that not an act of treason ? How did Osama find safety 200 yards from the top Military college of pakistan? Who helped him for years and years? Why is that not treason? And when you are screaming from the rooftops that you want to capture Osama ; here is a good citizen who thought he will help. Now that he has succeeded; why should he not be awarded? After all he helped your ally take down your enemy. Why does this not call for a"Nishan e Pakistan"? Or was Osama your ally and Obama your enemy while you professed the opposite; confusing everyone.
Well the reasons are not very difficult to fathom. As usual the rules are not made clear on purpose. The governments say one thing and mean quite another. This allows them to interpret them in any which way they please. Terrorists are not terrorists if they can be used by them but people are not to be kept in loop about this dangerous policy. On top everyone will not be treated equally. Army is the sacred cow and people are so expendable! With the result a doctor who until a fortnight ago was the epitome of a patriot valiantly fighting disease and taking care of his people's health, has today turned into a Traitor deserving a life sentence. It does not matter that bigger and worse traitors than him are roaming large in every neighborhood.
Other than making childish jokes about miserly corner shop Patel and big Pakistani families collecting welfare; generally these traits are well tolerated by the society. Certainly at an official level US is a melting pot ( although all that's melting is their economy) and Canada is officially a multicultural society. It is helped in part by the fact that Neither the US nor Canada have any worth while Cricket team and South Asian countries hardly count in Ice Hockey or Basketball. So no clashes occur to test loyalty there. People can support who ever ,when ever and nobody will question their allegiances!
Most of the Pakistani's have retained their pakistani passports even as they eagerly count the days when they become eligible to apply for the US/ Canadian ones. No one delays applying for it even for a day. Indian's can not retain their Indian passports, so as soon as they acquire the US/ Canadians ones; they move heaven and earth to apply for an Overseas Citizen of India card. Yet the respective US and the Canadian governments do not suspect their loyalties or hold back any rights of the citizenship. Bravo! This kind of trust in their fellow citizens automatically generates loyalty. Why it is important is because these very same people who fail the Tebbit test happily; who stick their neck out for their respective lands of origin get treated with disdain by those very dispositions as a matter of course and with complete disinterest on their lucky day. All one has to do is to walk into any mission of their land of origin and the complete weight of an inefficient bureaucracy gets thrown in their face. Trust, helpfulness, clarity of rules and regulations , human rights, equality , respect for an individual and empowerment are not the words that can easily come to mind.
Actually it is no different from what any other citizen of these countries experiences every day of their life in their home countries . There they have to fight to be treated with dignity or to be dealt with according to the rule of law and trusted as an equal citizen of the land. Sadly it does not happen very often. There they have a ruler and then they are the ruled . Although people constantly change roles from ruled to ruler depending on situation to situation. A taxi driver will think nothing of fudging the meter and grossly over charging the rider. Yet the same Taxi driver will get fleeced on the next intersection by the traffic constable , who has a quota of tickets to fill for his boss. The boss who has to supply a decent efficiency figure howsoever fictional it maybe , to his own boss. The taxi rider on the other hand will consider it normal to pay a bribe to the local lineman if that means he can cheat on his electricity bill. The lineman will share this bribe with his engineer who in turn gives up a portion for the executive engineer; who has to arrange for a hefty sum to pay off his boss or he will get transferred to boondocks. Everyone is engaged in usurping everyone's rights. In this situation whoever carries a bigger stick prevails. Truth , fairness , rule of law and decency becomes a constant casualty. They cheat each other , they cheat their society , they cheat their families and they cheat their country . Incessantly. If this is not treason what is?
This is how regular traitors are made out of regular patriots . Ironically western system on the other hand takes a " Tebbit traitor" and creates a patriot out of him by simply providing clear laws and equal treatment. I am reminded of all this by the recent act of the Pakistan government where they slyly sentenced Dr. Shakil Afridi to 33 years in prison for assisting CIA in its search for Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. The good Doctor made an error of judgement but should he not have received a fair trial instead of a Kangaroo court where he could not even receive legal assistance ? The question should also be asked when Scores of Pakistani generals helped CIA capture several other Terrorist leaders in Pakistan ,what crime did Dr. Afridi commit ? Afia Siddiqui, a pakistani national was captured and handed over to US without a trial by the same authorities. Why is that not an act of treason ? How did Osama find safety 200 yards from the top Military college of pakistan? Who helped him for years and years? Why is that not treason? And when you are screaming from the rooftops that you want to capture Osama ; here is a good citizen who thought he will help. Now that he has succeeded; why should he not be awarded? After all he helped your ally take down your enemy. Why does this not call for a"Nishan e Pakistan"? Or was Osama your ally and Obama your enemy while you professed the opposite; confusing everyone.
Well the reasons are not very difficult to fathom. As usual the rules are not made clear on purpose. The governments say one thing and mean quite another. This allows them to interpret them in any which way they please. Terrorists are not terrorists if they can be used by them but people are not to be kept in loop about this dangerous policy. On top everyone will not be treated equally. Army is the sacred cow and people are so expendable! With the result a doctor who until a fortnight ago was the epitome of a patriot valiantly fighting disease and taking care of his people's health, has today turned into a Traitor deserving a life sentence. It does not matter that bigger and worse traitors than him are roaming large in every neighborhood.
No comments:
Post a Comment
You are welcome to add a byte to our bark. You can agree, disagree, be critical, humorous or sarcastic. Add information or correct information. We do not have a copy editor so we'll not edit a single word of yours. We however have an in-house butcher who'll entirely cut away any abusive post. Come to think of it, most editors have the finesse of a butcher anyway!