I am extremely offended by XTM’s post The Game We Can Smell and must register my protest.
I have deleted the post on “Why Indians have stopped reading” since it was being misunderstood and not being taken in the spirit in which it was meant.
I repeatedly clarified that the title was not mine but was chosen by Scroll. Scroll is an Indian publication and both the discussants are Indian. Even some of the Indian commenters agreed that XTM was being hyper-sensitive.
XTM’s post in response is full of some rather unfounded accusations which I take offense to. I do not “hate” India or Hindus. I am against Hindutva, which is a political movement. Many Indians are against “Islamism” (however one defines that term). I would not say that that means they “hate” Muslims.
I have been accused of not showing adequate respect to Asha Bhosle, which is an accusation which–to be frank– borders on the ridiculous.
As El Khawaja noted in a comment anyone reading my essays would come away with the impression that I am “pro-India”. I’m certainly more “pro-India” than many other Pakistanis.
XTM’s post brought out the usual anti-Pakistan trolls who have–as usual– cast aspersions on my center-left credentials and called me an “Islamist”. This is absolutely unacceptable behavior. If one is going to respect the sensitivities of Indian commenters, one must respect the sensitivities of Pakistanis. I will under no circumstances tolerate passive aggression or personal attacks. I will not tolerate nastiness about Pak Fauj. Quips like “Failed Marshal” are unacceptable.
On the word “Islamist” specifically: an “Islamist” is someone who advocates for a state run on Shariah. I have made over 6000 comments on this forum over the years. I challenge anyone to find even one comment where I’ve called for Shariah. If they cannot find such a comment, than this word is libel.
BB made a threat of violence against me. Threatening to hold a gun to someone’s head is a very serious breach of conduct. That breach of conduct deserved a permanent ban from the forum not a suspension of one week.
BB has not learned anything from his suspension and is back to posting “low signal” pictures from “Dhurandhar”. He knows that Pakistanis find that movie triggering and this is precisely why he posts these memes.
BP is in danger of becoming a hostile space for Pakistanis. There needs to be serious introspection about why this is so.
Obviously for many Indians, being anti-Pakistan serves some psychic need. But for a forum which prides itself on its intellectual caliber to enable such behavior is unacceptable.
as i noted yesterday – i do not agree with XTM’s claim – i think Kabir posted it without ill will – and i am willing to digest it even if there was ill will – thats the price you pay for having India and Pakistan commentators togethers – some degree of animosity is fine – rather expected.
Where i think Kabir goes wrong is taking criticisms of Pakistani army or quips like Failed Marshall personally whereas he has no qualms calling the leader of the largest democracy Hindu Hriday Samrat {he does it in pejorative}. Thats double standards – when Liberal pakistanis themselves have made all these criticism of army establishment – nothing Indians have said first time.
There is difference between making islamist jibe at Kabir and calling Pak Army bad names or Asim Munir a Jihadi/Fanatic.
People use Islamist incorrectly – they dont mean someone who wants sharia – but merely someone who is pre Islam/Muslim i reckon
While I don’t personally have a problem with what you had posted, the issue here is the pattern called out by XTM. Not long ago, I lamented your low-effort posts in the past to the mods whereby you just take a post at random generated in volumes by the (far) Left media in India. For any genuine conversation, we should also have something analogous from the Pakistani side – unfortunately, that is not likely anytime soon both because such self-critical media practically doesn’t exist in Pakistan and because most Pakistani commentators on BP are not interested in anything critical of Pakistan. Indians are an argumentative, noisy and deeply self-critical lot but critical posts from the “other” side without any balance irk almost everyone that galvanizes the Indian commentariat and only leads to the kind of discussion that seems to have taken place over the weekend. I can elaborate further but I think you get the gist.
P.S. – This is not meant to be a personal attack on you in any way and I hope you see that. Ideally we’d all be able to discuss things without looking at each other’s identity but that’s not going to happen if things stay the same.