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ShareBangalore: He might have played more than 30 games with the Indian football team, but Mehrajuddin Wadoo still has to live in the shadow of being a Kashmiri and, more importantly, a Muslim. The recent detention of a Kashmiri cricketer in Bangalore has raised questions about how sportsmen from the state are looked upon outside J&K.
"Recently when the national team was coming back from Barcelona, all the other team members passed the immigration at Zurich airport in no time, but my process took more time as they had many questions to ask," the 25-year-old midfielder recalls adding, "Even in India, in fact in Mumbai, I was made to answer more questions by the immigration officer although I was part of the Indian team. The problem was that my name is Mehrajuddin and I am from Kashmir."
Mehraj thinks people treat Kashmiri sportsmen differently. "One should treat J&K players equally. Why can't one look at us the way they look at a Rahul Dravid, or a Sachin Tendulkar or for that matter Baichung Bhutia? We too are sportsmen and have to be respected," he says.
Mehraj's journey to the Indian team has also been through such phases. He recalls, "When I started playing, militancy was at its peak. When I first came to Bangalore to play for HAL, people used to ask me about militancy rather than football. The same was the case initially when I went to Kolkata to play for Mohun Bagan."
He also blames Bollywood for creating such perceptions. "In the recent film Sikander, the director called up and said that the film was inspired by my life, but when I saw the film I saw that the footballer was holding a gun. I have never touched a gun; I have only played football. So you can imagine what people will think about Kashmiri sportspersons after seeing this movie."
