FAZIL QAYOOM
Srinagar: Immediately after the news of Parvez Rasools selection to Team India broke, social networking sites remained abuzz with posts and comments by fellow Kashmiris about his credentials and the credibility of his inclusion in the sixteen member squad that is playing an ODI series against Zimbabwe from July 24.
India is playing the Parvez Card to legitimise its presence in Kashmir , wrote a facebook user. However, there are people who adopted a liberal approach towards his selection and yet others who are head over heels saying the cricketer truly deserved what he got.
Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, was quick to welcome Rasools inclusion in the sixteen member squad. Omar wrote on twitter: Parvez Rasool has made it in to the team on the back of a very strong performance in recent months, his being a Kashmiri is incidental.
Samreen Mushtaq, a political Science student from Jawaharlal Nehru University, in her tweet said India was misleading people that everything in Kashmir was hunky-dory.
Not criticizing his cricketing talent but they are using him as another name to legitimise the occupation and show how happy Kashmir is with India, wrote Samreen.
Jehangir Nousherwan writes India has always used individuals as icons to whitewash its chequered relationship with its subjects: The Khans in Bollywood, the certain Muslims who became Presidents, the top ranked Kashmiris in its civil service exam and now a Kashmiri cricketer.
Gowhar Geelani, journalist, says Parvez Rasool shouldnt be ostracised for the selection.
Why ostracize and isolate Parvez Rasool, a cricketer from small South Kashmir town Bijbehara and a boy with humble background, for getting selected in the Indian national team? Don’t we have people joining as Police officers, IAS and KAS officers, bureaucrats, politicians, collaborators, Sarpanchs and Panchs…! It should be left as it is. Some Kashmiris would want Parvez to score runs and take wickets but still pray on the prayer mat for Pakistan’s victory over India. That remains the reality, wrote Gowhar in response to anti-Parvez comments by some Kashmiris on facebook, who dubbed the allrounder as traitor.
Shahnawaz Dar, a facebook user, wrote that Rasools inclusion in Team Indian team was a psyop to win the Kashmiris over
One more Kashmiri and his near and dear ones turned Indian by heart. It is called Operation Sadbhavana, wrote Dar.
Activist and budding politician, Salman Anees Soz, puts the criticism aside and asks the Kashmiris to excel in their respective fields.
I, for one, am celebrating Parvez Rasool for such a rare accomplishment. I hope we have even more Kashmiris at world class levels in their own fields, wrote Soz on facebook.
Haris Zargar views this as a slave mentality to accept each thing from India. He is an extension of “State’s repressive apparatus”, though i don’t blame him. Its only slave mentality.
While Ibni Zaraar on his tweet urges all Kashmiris to revolt against India and not go for such accomplishments.
Let Parvaiz Rasool say bye bye to Indian cricket team. Let all Kashmiris, who work in India, also say bye to India. Let it be a mass revolution, tweeted Zaraar.
Rohail Afzal, a mass communications student, sees nothing bad in Parvez playing for India.
Congrats, if a Pakistani can play for South Africa and Australia or an Indian can play for England, why can’t a Kashmiri play for India or any other nation, wrote Afzal on facebook.
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