Don't cheer for Pakistan's cricket team if you are in India, you may be suspended or stabbed!

67 Kashmiri students were suspended and one was stabbed to death in India because they cheered for Pakistan's team.

Faraz Talat March 06, 2014
In a bizarre demonstration of overbearing nationalism, a university in Uttar Pradesh suspended 67 Kashmiri students for cheering for the Pakistani cricket team. This may be a clinical sign that the sore-loser syndrome has reached its terminal stage.

I don’t watch cricket. All I really know about the sport is that Pakistan won the match because Shakil Afridi, incidentally the same guy who found Osama, scored a last-minute goal (also called a ‘touchdown’).

I do know, though, that every India-Pakistan cricket match sends the neighbouring nations into a state of frenzy, which is quite natural. It doesn’t matter. As long as their skirmishes and battles are confined to the cricket stadium, I have no qualms with their passion.

Occasionally, that fervour spills out of the stadium into the real world, causing significant turbulence in our social and political lives. Swami Vivekanand Subharti University (SVSU) has policies as complicated and arcane as its name would suggest. The institution indefinitely suspended all Kashmiri students residing in Madan Dhingra hostel for applauding Pakistan’s victory in the cricket match.

The administration received complaints regarding some Kashmiri students yelling pro-Pakistani slogans and clapping whenever the Pakistani team scored. The Kashmiri students complained of angry Indian team supporters vandalising their rooms and damaging their property in retaliation. Only one of these complaints was dealt with seriously.

It’s like the time when New York’s Columbia University expelled a Chicago student for cheering the Chicago Bulls instead of New York Knicks during a basketball… oh, of course I’m kidding. There is no precedent, at least to my knowledge. A university cannot mandate which sports team a student may or may not support. The subcontinent, in this regard, is a universe of its own.

A three-tier inquiry at SVSU was appalled when the Kashmiri students refused to come forward and apologise for their behaviour. When they refused to give names of the students responsible for causing the uproar, all 67 Kashmiri students of the hostel were sent back to the valley.

The crime was not hooliganism; that, if any, is being attributed to the local students who were outraged by the Kashmiris’ support for the ‘enemy’ team. The most offensive part of the incident is the institution’s firm belief in its own imaginary magnanimity, that they sent these students back to the valley to secure them from the possible clashes. The attitude, it seems, is being shared by many parents of students at the university as well.

These are the same kind of wise policy-makers who would suspend a woman from work at the office in order to ‘protect her from harassment’. It does not occur to the administration to reprimand and punish the local students who are not evolved enough to tolerate a student’s support for an opposing team. The answer, instead, is to punish the victim and send him home.

Regrettably, this is not even the worst incident in the aftermath of the cricket match. In the Baramulla region of occupied Kashmir, a youth was stabbed to death by Indian forces for celebrating Pakistan’s victory. While this aggression will surely be bilaterally decried, this will not likely be the wake-up call to us on what jingoism could lead us to, just as thousands of tragedies before this weren’t.

I’ve learned from past experiences that whenever I say something marginally critical of anything Indian, I must also say something equally and irrelevantly critical of Pakistan so not to hurt an Indian friend’s pride.

So I would add, to burst my fellow Pakistanis’ bubble, that if somebody openly applauded the Indian team in a Pakistani university, he too would be treated rather poorly. Would he get suspended? Depending on the university, quite possibly, though that hasn’t happened yet as far as I’m aware. If it does happen, I would condemn that wholeheartedly as well.

SVSU’s immaturity deserves no apologists. A university’s vice-chancellor should not be concerned with which sports team I cheer for or which Game of Thrones character I root for. If anybody is to be punished, it should be the one not capable of tolerating diversity of thought at the campus.

[poll id="327"]
WRITTEN BY:
Faraz Talat

The writer is a doctor based in Rawalpindi and writes about current affairs and societal issues.

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (247)

Gohanish | 6 years ago | Reply well indeed it doesn't matter which team you support for or love but that's within a certain limitation. If your beloved team won against your country's team , even if you show signs of happiness you should not celebrate . Well one might say it infringes on one's right , but does it matter ? To further explain i will take an example . Imagine your spouse/parent/child loves wrestling , he/she is a die hard fan of a wrestler , there's nothing wrong in him/her supporting him/her . But then by inevitable reasons you and that wrestler have to fight against each other . Result you are beaten black blue , Now tell me would you like if your spouse/parent/child is still celebrating like never before , instead of comforting you . Well i at least would get angry. And so would the country in that case , and what it does in retaliation depends upon the country , kicking them out would be a better soln for all we know .
aadil george | 9 years ago | Reply i just wanna say pakistan zindabad......no one can destroy pakistan..i m a non muslim and having a complete relegious freedom....
VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ