IPL Without Pakistanis

For once, I am with the Shiv Sena. I don't agree with their Mumbai-is-for-Maharashtrians-only line, but I do support their measures (threats?) to ensure that Pakistani players were excluded from IPL 3.

People who talk about separating sports from politics don't seem to know their history. What happened in the Berlin Olympics in 1936? Or the West's boycott of the Moscow Olympics? Or the Eastern Bloc's retaliatory boycott of the LA Olympics?

In any case, this is far more serious than those instances. Those were actions based on an ideological opinion (Nazism/racism in one case, capitalism v/s communism in the others). None of those were examples of the "common man" being affected. 26/11 was not an ideological difference. It was terrorism, mass murder by a set of Pakistani citizens, supported from within Pakistan, trained within Pakistan...the list goes on. Next, Pakistan has done nothing to prosecute the people responsible or to dismantle terrorist infrastructure within their country.

So why exactly are we supposed to allow their cricketers into India? So that they can make truckloads of money? So that they can give part of that money to terrorists? Or so that they can give money to madrasas and charities that are fronts for terrorism?

Why then do we have Shah Rukh Khan in favour of having Pakistanis in IPL? Is it because Dawood funds Bollywood movies and he has told SRK to do so? Or is it because SRK's IPL team isn't doing well and he wants some of the T20 world champion players (in other words, a pure business decision)? Or is it because SRK, otherwise so articulate and clear in his thoughts, really believes that just because his father came from Pakistan, all Pakistanis are wonderful people? So apparently, extrapolating based on one person (his father) is correct for SRK. But he doesn’t think it is right when others do the same based on the religion of the perpetrators of 9/11, 7/7 and 26/11. Talk about double standards.

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