Why The World's Biggest Movie Star Can't Speak On Indo-Pak Peace?

It's a shame that a superstar can't talk of Indo-Pak peace

- Hamid Mir

Lots of Pakistanis love Lata Mangeshkar, but they hate India. Many Indians love Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, but they consider Pakistan a terrorist country. Recently, a young batsman of the Pakistani cricket team told me he wants to “become Virat Kohli” but he is always reluctant to accept that in public. Some days back, I met movie star Shahrukh Khan in Dubai. Interviewing him for Geo TV, I tried to discuss the importance of peace and tolerance for the people of India and Pakistan. But his media managers shouted: “Don’t enter red zones.” I never realised that the world’s biggest movie star has no star power to speak on peace and tolerance between his country and its neighbour. Over the last few days, I feel that’s equally true of our prime ministers, Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi. The two elected leaders can say a lot but find it difficult to move fast in the direction of peace and tolerance.

I have met Sharif many times after his December 25 meeting with Modi in Lahore. Each time, he was anxious to improve relations with India, and was very optimistic when India allowed Pakistani investigators to visit the Pathankot base, where terrorists had struck. But the day the team was to reach the base, Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, the Pakistani army spokesman, announced the arrest of a “RAW agent” called Kulbhushan Yadav in Balochistan. Information minister Pervez Rashid was present at the press conference but spoke not a word on Yadav. The Pakistani media pounced on this and taunted that maybe Sharif and his ministers were not happy about the arrest. Some jingoists on social media declared Sharif an agent of India’s spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, or RAW. Modi faces similar taunts, and rivals ask, “Do we have an ISI agent as a prime minister now?”