From Aamir Khan to Shahid Afridi, it has become a ridiculous trend in India and Pakistan that whenever a public figure makes a comment, it has ab absurd tendency of becoming an attack on "national pride" and an act of treason.
As someone who has been following cricket passionately for almost 21 years, I have been one of the biggest critics of Shahid Afridi over his attitude both on and off the field. Whether it’s about his consistently irresponsible style of performing while in the playing 11, or his unprofessional way of dealing with the media and even his fans, Boom Boom has been often found causing stirs after stirs with both his words and actions since making his debut back in 1996.
Having said that, the recent controversy which caught Pakistan T20 captain seems to be much more serious than all others combined. And this time whatever is happening to Lala is unfair to say the least.
Apparently Shahid Khan Afridi has been served a legal notice in the aftermath of his comments where he expressed his views regarding feeling ’more loved in India than Pakistan.’ It would have been understandable, had it only been about "hurting the sentiments" of people of Pakistan but furthermore, a legal notice demanded Afridi to issue a clarification of his statement otherwise an application would be filed to try him for treason charges under Article 6 of the Constitution.
"We have always enjoyed playing in India and have been loved by Indian crowds more than crowds back home in Pakistan. Cricket has always brought people together and I think politics should be kept away from cricket," was the answer of Shahid Afridi to a question of a journalist during his press conference in Kolkata. The one-line statement was enough to curse him on national media, brand him a "traitor" and ridicule him all over social media by the self-proclaimed champions of patriotism who are obviously sitting on moral high ground from where they judge everyone's loyalty to Pakistan.
Few months back, when Aamir Khan faced severe criticism and bashing by a large part of Indian public, most of the Pakistanis, rightfully stood with Aamir Khan and his right to have an opinion. The very same Pakistanis are acting as mirror image of the similarly intolerant Indians by doing exactly what was done to Aamir Khan. Why have we, the people of South Asia, made our societies so insecure that harmless statements are enough to hurt everything from patriotism to national interest? Why is this national pride so shallow? Why are the foundations of this country so weak that even one line statement turns out to be a threat to it?
There is more to Shahid Afridi than his cherry picked line. Despite his recent bad performances, he is still a national hero who has multiple times given this nation a reason to smile and feel proud. Our priorities are messed up if we hail an individual for "cursing" a national hero on live television. Our definition of patriotism is terrible if we turn a national hero into a traitor overnight for merely expressing an opinion.
It's amazing how people have the audacity to call someone who gave up his 20 years to Pakistan cricket a "traitor" when they have done absolutely nothing themselves. One should label him a traitor only if they can prove themselves to be more ''patriotic" than him. Because the very people who are judging his loyalty towards Pakistan are the same who were calling him pride of the country when he hit Ravichandran Ashwin for two sixes and sealed the victory for Pakistan.
Of course, it can be argued whether he should have made that statement or not, or whether his choice of words was poor. However, calling to charge him under Article 6 of the Pakistani Constitution is a little too much. Let's get over this attitude where some people have defined "patriotism" in their own way and whoever falls out of that definition is immediately stamped a traitor.