[Reader-list] Is anyone thinking about boycotting Pakistan?

[M Javed]

Dear Kshmendra
First of all, does a public call to "boycott" any country ever yield
any results? Probably only thing that works is an economic sanctions
put on countries (such as what was done on South Africa or Iraq once).

Secondly, if you say America needs to by boycotted: yes, even before
Israel, millions of people all over the world tried to boycott America
a number of times, especially before and during the Iraq war (2003) -
even in places like Germany and France, people rejected American goods
(although not sure how much it affected the US economy). So, we have a
long history of boycotting. But we also know that not every American
is responsible for what the US administration does to the world. So
what is the fault of an ordinary US citizen?

The same may apply to Pakistan. Yes we need to boycott Pakistan, but I
asked HOW? What exactly do we do to boycott Pakistan? Do we have any
of their products coming into India which we can block? If a Pakistani
ailing person wants to come to India to get treated in our hospital,
do we deny them entry? Do we block their TV channels?

But even more important is my question: How to you define Pakistan
which you wish to boycott? Are we looking at Pakistan as a big
monolithic entity the whole of which is responsible for the terrorist
attacks - its each and every citizen, all govt. officials, Pakistani
culture, music, its trees, rivers, birds, what all do we include to
boycott? If you really think it is some kind of monolithic entity
which is responsible for India's plight, then what is wrong with my
suggestion that we eject the entire landmass into space - there would
not remain even the seeds and fertile land to cultivate the hate
against India.

And if you think that even if there are one per cent people in
Pakistan who want peace with India, we should boycott them as well,
then what more can I say. But I would still like to know how would
that help the situation.

Javed



On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 4:37 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dear Javed
>
> Your post was copied to me so I presume you were addressing me too.
>
> To put things in perspective, my post on boycotting Pakistan, was in
> response to Zain's post on boycotting Israel.
>
> You might have missed noticing it but my post was almost a copy of Zain's
> post with Israel being replaced by Pakistan and a few other changes.
>
> The point I was trying to make was that Indians, if they have to boycott
> anyone should be talking about boycotting Pakistan much before any thoughts
> of boycotting Israel. Reason is simple that Pakistan has sought to and has
> hurt India wheras that cannot be said about Israel. India has no reason for
> boycotting Israel.
>
> If one has to call for a boycott by India of Israel because of a judgement
> of Israel's actions and policies (outside the Indian theatre), then there
> are countries which are far more guilty judged by those very standards by
> which Israel would be judged. The USA is a prime and foremost example of
> such a country. USA in fact is worse (for an Indian) because the policies
> and actions of USA have adversely impacted India too. Why do we not see a
> 'boycott USA' call from those in India (and in fact elsewhere in the world
> too) who are quick to give a 'boycott Israel' call?
>
> I hope you now realise that my 'boycott Pakistan' call was an amused
> response to Zain.
>
> Do I believe that Pakistan should be boycotted by India? I am not sure about
> that at as far as the far ranging implications of a 'boycott' are concerned.
>
> Pakistan is hardly dependant on India for anything at all. From that
> perspective India boycotting Pakistan would be a pompous stand of
> exaggerated self-importance by India. Pressure is meaningful only when the
> one pressured has only the choice of 'yield or break'.
>
> But, I would not want Pakistan to benefit from India in any way until
> Pakistan stops interfering into India. Cricketing ties are one such sphere.
>
> Yet I am not too sure whether those who share common values based on mutual
> respect and mutual acceptance should be barred from interacting. These might
> be sportsmen, artists, artistes, litterateurs, academicians, students etc
>
> These do not include those who have made a profession of being "Peace
> Activists". Such people, especially on the Indian side mock by their words
> and actions the hurts suffered by India that have been caused by Pakistan.
> They take the focus away from the seriousness of issues and not only harm
> India but to my mind harm Pakistan too. They play into the hands of the
> sinister elements in Pakistan who love them and herald them; those very
> elements who are not only seeking to destroy India but ironically are
> destroying Pakistan too.
>
> There are two groupings in India who, in my opinion would be best suited to
> talk with and talk to Pakistan and the Pakistanis.
>
> One is the Govt Of India (GOI) who has all these past decades either allowed
> Pakistan to 'get away with it' or been delusional that Pakistan has been
> sincere and well meaning in the "Peace" noises it has been making. GOI needs
> to tell Pakistan "Listen guys. We have been enemies for long and we thought
> we could be friendlier now. But we cannot have these Confidence Building
> Measures (CBMs) while you continue to harm us. This duplicity is not
> acceptable any more. Either you stop being hypocritical or let us accept
> each other and declare each other as enemies and act accordingly"
>
> The other grouping that needs to do some intensive public plainspeaking to
> Pakistan and Pakistanis is the Indian Muslims. That is another topic
> altogether but Pakistan and Pakistanis need to be told that they are not
> only making life hell for the Indian Muslims but also for Muslims all over
> the world and even in Pakistan. That they are ruining Islam by propagating
> or allowing propagation of convoluted ideas in the name of Islam. That they
> are destroying Islam.
>
> You have hyperventilated a sarcastic whine about 'ejecting ..... into outer
> space', Pakistan, Afghanistan, Osama, Iran. Why you have done it only you
> would know. Only Pakistan was being spoken about. Why are you being so
> sensitive about it and injecting irrational conclusions of what was stated?
> Excuse my questions. Are you a Pakistani? Are you a Muslim? Do you subscribe
> to 'every Muslim is a citizen of the Islamic temporal domain that has
> primacy over nationality' ? Why else would you club together Pakistan,
> Afghanistan, Osama, Iran.
>
>
> Kshmendra
>
> --- On Thu, 2/5/09, M Javed <javedmasoo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: M Javed <javedmasoo at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Is anyone thinking about boycotting Pakistan?
> To: "Lalit Ambardar" <lalitambardar at hotmail.com>
> Cc: kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com, "reader-list at sarai.net"
> <reader-list at sarai.net>, zainrahimtula1 at googlemail.com
> Date: Thursday, February 5, 2009, 11:11 AM
>
> How does one boycott Pakistan? Haven't we already done that by not
> playing cricket with them. But interestingly, while we boycott
> Pakistani cricket team because of the Mumbai terror, we play cricket
> with Sri Lankans who are killing so many Tamils in Sri Lanka. Why
> can't we boycott them as well. (and interestingly, Sri Lanka has
> decided to play cricket with Pakistan any way).
>
> I think the only way to fully boycott Pakistan is to simply eject the
> entire landmass of that country from the planet earth and send it
> spiralling into outer space - that's the only way the terrorism can be
> solved.  Then the empty space will be filled with the water from the
> Arabian sea and it may actually solve the problem of global warming.
> Maybe we can tag along Afghanistan too with (Osama will certainly
> leave earth then) and send them to outer space - they will also meet
> the Iranians there (who have just sent their satellite). Good way to
> solve many problems in one go.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 1:15 AM, Lalit Ambardar
> <lalitambardar at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> You could only be sure of a mute response.
>>
>> In case of Pakistan you are expected to maintain  the  'dine &
> dance' bonhomie even while India conitinues to bleed at the hands of the
> Pakistan sponsored pan Islamists.
>>
>> One can only suspect the empathy being shown for the poor Palestinians
> since the bloody ethnic cleansing by the Pakistan loyal Kashmiri jihadis, of
> Kashmiri Hindu Pandits- co citizens of the most on this forum never evoked
> any
> such similar sentiment.
>>
>> On the contrary the perpetrators like Yassin Mallik who at the behest of
> his Pakistani masters along with his other jihadi cohorts brought death &
> destruction to our own Kashmir- in our own backyard, are being unashamedly
> eulogized on this forum.
>> Regards all
>> LA
>
>