As the bird flies Mumbai is nearly 1,800 km from Kabul and yet the debate over the AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan’s refusal to say Bharat Mata Ki Jai has left many here wondering why religion and love for the nation are being pitched against each other.
As the bird flies Mumbai is nearly 1,800 km from Kabul and yet the debate over the AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan’s refusal to say Bharat Mata Ki Jai has left many here wondering why religion and love for the nation are being pitched against each other.
Performer, singer and women’s rights champion, Aryana Sayeed, who has herself sung a popular anthem eulogising Afghanistan, said she was shocked. She felt that politics should be kept aside when it comes to the nation. “Such a misinformed stance could bring a bad name to Muslims and their religion across India and elsewhere. I have myself sung a song praising my country.”
She also pointed out how in Afghanistan it is common for people to deify the nation with songs saying they worship it. “If this is the emotion in what is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, why should it be any different in a secular India?” She also expressed her distaste for mixing religion and love for the nation. “One can be both.”
Like her, Abdul Wakeel Amarkhail of Awap video too highlighted a poem by Qahar Aasi, Khiyal Man Yaqeen Man (This is my thought, this is my belief, beyond my religion/ Even if they call me infidel/ I’d insist it better than heaven/ My beloved country), “This is respected for its sentiment and not seen as blasphemous. And this is far more ahead of a mere Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”
Echoing him Canada based Afghan event manager who runs Sherzaad Entertainment, Hasib Sayed, said a refusal to respect the nation smacked of willful fomenting of trouble. “I would imagine that this is being done by interests inimical to India who want to provoke friction.” He likened it to some extreme elements in Afghanistan “who are always looking for an excuse to start clashes.”
In light of the strong public reactions, though Pathan has since changed his stand to a willingness to say Jai Hind his refusal to say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai,’ it is still being seen by many in Kabul as misogyny. Among them Sociology Professor Nooruddin Alawi of the Kabul university. “Does this mean the negation of feminising of the nation?” he asked and added, “Even his attempts at damage control give away the deep-seated patriarchal negation of respect to women.”
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 "Afghanistan, Waris Pathan, Bharat Mata ki jai, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad ul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Maharashtra")
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