Should India play sports with Pakistan? Mood of the Nation poll reveals

5 months ago

An overwhelming 69% of respondents said India shouldn't play sports with Pakistan, while 25% were in favour, according to the India Today-CVoter Mood of the Nation survey.

Transcript

00:00All this, there is still confusion, because guess what?

00:02In a few days from now, India will play Pakistan in the Asia Cup.

00:06Now, the Prime Minister has said blood and water can't flow together,

00:09but clearly, blood and cricket, it seems, can.

00:12Preeti, what is the Mood of the Nation survey saying?

00:15Do people believe India should play sports with Pakistan?

00:18Well, you know, the respondents in the Sea Water Mood of the Nation survey

00:22in this highlight, Rajdeep, the dichotomy in communication.

00:26Because like you rightly pointed out, there is a new normal.

00:28If blood won't flow with water, then how can terror and cricket go hand in hand?

00:33When the question was posed, should India play sports with Pakistan?

00:38Mind you, the answer is very clear.

00:4125% yes, and a whopping 69% say no.

00:46That we should not leave alone cricket, play any sports with Pakistan.

00:51And Rajdeep, I think this particular answer completely highlights

00:55the lack of communication.

00:58Because at one end, you are drawing a new normal,

01:00which seems to suggest that we have nothing to do with Pakistan.

01:03Yet, weeks after, we are playing Pakistan in the Asia Cup,

01:07come the 14th of September.

01:09Lo and behold, people are questioning, why are we playing Pakistan?

01:12Okay, I'm going to go right around the table with quick answers.

01:15One line answer.

01:15Should India play cricket with Pakistan, Maria Shakir?

01:18Yes.

01:19India should?

01:20Why?

01:20I think we are great sporting nations and India-Pakistan match has always been a delight.

01:26Yashwan Deshmukh, your poll clearly is saying, majority say no, don't play with Pakistan.

01:30I'm with the majority.

01:31You're with the majority?

01:32For a simple reason that now is not the time.

01:35Now is not the time.

01:36I also think now is not the time.

01:39Okay.

01:39Sandeep.

01:40Now is not the time, Rajdeep.

01:42You mean you would boycott the Asia Cup, even if it meaning forfeit the match against Pakistan.

01:46If Pakistan wins the cup, so be it.

01:48Absolutely.

01:50Well, Rajdeep, I don't think, they can say now is not the time, but I think that when

01:55you play international games, you cannot boycott, you cannot sit out of all international

01:59games, so they would have had to play.

02:01But that's known to have happened.

02:02What's your view?

02:03What's your view?

02:04Should we play or not?

02:04No, no, I don't think we should play because primarily, Rajdeep, the valor of our armed forces

02:09cannot be so cheap that you play sports.

02:12But how is this really cheap?

02:13The lives of the Pehelgaam, because it's a new normal.

02:15We are not, we are doing absolutely nothing.

02:17We've closed our ties where trade is concerned.

02:19You can't give a free round to a country, but in the 80s, Rajdeep, in the 80s, in the

02:2580s, the United States of America backed out of Olympics on the basis that they did

02:30not want to play with Soviet Union.

02:32They made a very strong statement.

02:33Why are we shying off that?

02:35We should make exactly the same statement.

02:36We should never play with Pakistan.

02:37Not never.

02:38Nobody's saying never.

02:39On our terms.

02:40These are not on our terms.

02:41Okay.

02:41Why do you feel so strong here?

02:43The people are against it.

02:44Okay, let's get the other view.

02:45You cannot give, you know, I'm always of the opinion that what happens diplomatically

02:50or militarily is different from a different door which should be always open.

02:56And sports, cinema, these are spaces which give that chance to two countries who are neighbors.

03:02Okay.

03:03To continue to have that interaction, cinema has stopped completely.

03:07Sports is that space.

03:08Now, I have to go to the survey.

03:12The survey says 69%.

03:13So, seven in every ten are saying don't play cricket with Pakistan.

03:17It seems to me it's all about commerce.

03:19At the end of the day, the BCCI is the big bully of cricket superpower.

03:24They could have taken the stand that we are going to boycott and got away with it.

03:27But it appears at the moment that the, you know, what really matters at the end of the day is the big bully of Rajiv.

03:34I'll tell you why I am against it largely.

03:37Not just for the thing what Preeti just mentioned.

03:40But also because I am actually heartbroken by so many cricketing heroes from Pakistan

03:47taking or saying such wrong things in the last few years that I have gone through.

03:54I am heartbroken, I am telling you.

03:56Okay, let's go.

03:57Because it's not just cricket.

03:59They take it to the Pakistani cricket people, the heroes whom we used to worship.

04:05They have taken it to that kind of a gutter level that I feel like, no, no, these are not my heroes.

04:11I will ask, what do you feel?

04:13I have just written a column that has come in India today and for the first time I must confess,

04:16I have been a great proponent of India-Pakistan cricket.

04:19I have had some of my finest moments watching cricket, watching India and Pakistan.

04:22I think sports should be a celebration of life, building bridges.

04:27But as I have said in the column, for the first time I am filled with no sense of hope.

04:31Nothing is going to really change between the two countries by playing a cricket match.

04:35Sadly, cricket has become war without weapons.

04:38And I agree to some extent with Yashwan that I haven't seen that kind of empathy and solidarity

04:42from Pakistanis including their cricket establishment to what happened in Pahlgaam.

04:47You see, Tali dohaj se bachti hai.

04:48Exactly.

04:49And I think at some stage, so for the first time, I mean, you know, a lot of people, our friend Gaurav is not here

04:55because he believes in Brahmos ki bhaasha, I believe in Aman ki asha.

04:58I am open about that.

04:59But the truth of the matter is, that for the first time I feel that a cricket match is being played in this environment

05:04is not going to serve any useful purpose.

05:08And in between there will be people like Shooja Basha.

05:10A caveat.

05:11You know, if we must play the Asia Cup with Pakistan,

05:14we must demand the release of the only Pakistani to have got Pakistan a World Cup.

05:20And that is Imran Khan.

05:21You should ask for the release.

05:23Come on.

05:24That will be seen as an interference with the domestic affairs of Pakistan.

05:27We are interfered in the domestic affairs with Brahmos missiles.

05:30I agree with you that Imran deserves to be out of jail.

05:34You know, the fact though is that this relationship has become so twisted

05:37that even a cricket match will not resolve it, which is sad.

05:41But you know, it's not about resolving.

05:43It's not about resolving.

05:45What I think is that there has to be a window of opportunity open.

05:50But create the conditions for the window first.

05:52You know, because when people watch matches,

05:56they still want their own countries to win.

05:59But when you watch these matches,

06:01you are having some sort of engagement.

06:03Okay, so the consensus, broad consensus in the TV studio,

06:06majority in the TV studio believe India should not be playing sports with Pakistan at this moment,

06:11as also is the mood of the nation.

Should India play sports with Pakistan? Mood of the Nation poll reveals

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