Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has a Test double hundred to his name, and yet seems to have little situational awareness — a failing his political opponents invariably jump in to exploit. He recently exclaimed that culturally he felt more at ease in Pakistan than in South India. Is he being anti-South Indian? Of course not. But is he being utterly foolish? Of course, what else?
It wouldn’t have mattered if the Partition of India hadn’t occurred. But today, with Pakistan a reality and bilateral relations mostly hostile, Mr Sidhu’s remarks can be seen as politically incorrect, and probably best avoided, although we Indians believe in the ancient philosophy of “vasudhaiv kutumbkam” — the world being one family. Left to be freely twisted in a BJP spokesman’s hands, the minister’s observation was truly anti-national.
Two decades ago, visiting Lahore as a member of an eminent persons’ group, a Tamil Nadu MP said that to him North Indians and Pakistanis were equally distant, culturally speaking. He was warming up to an argument on why India and Pakistan should waste their time fighting and not forge a cooperative outlook. He was dead right.
Was that Mr Sidhu in reverse? Perhaps. But it was the forum and the context that matters. The MP was speaking in the broad context of constructing peaceful relations and saying generously that a part of his own country seemed as culturally apart for him as next-door Pakistan. He was also alluding to the great diversities of our subcontinental home in food, language, and dress.
Mr Sidhu still appears more reality TV, a world he has known, than bare-knuckled politicking. Let’s hope that he never learns his new game.
