I was just going through the news of the recent controversy about involvement of our cricket players in spot-fixing. I saw harsh comments of raging cricket fans, someone said they should be killed on the spot, the other said she was insulted at work just because the players brought disgrace to the country. I, for some reason, did not share the same feelings, probably because I hear about bomb blasts and target killings everyday and the dismay of the flood affected people has made this issue look very minuscule. At least no living being died in this incident and some would argue that Pakistan's name and image has been tarnished so well, that, my friends, has already been done thanks to our Mr. President and his likes.
Having said that, I, in no way, intend to defend the players' wrong doings and I support the idea that justice be brought to them. Certain questions popped in my mind, though. Why is the lie that I tell to my boss at my workplace any smaller of a sin than what the players did? Why should I not be punished for using an official vehicle for my personal use,without informing higher authorities, and the players be punished? How is the way my littering around the city, breaking traffic rules, smoking at public place and selling gutka any less of a crime? How many of us have really gone out of the way to defend the name of our country or done slightest bit to make her proud? What have I done in the past 27 years that I have inhabited this place that would be counted as doing your bit for your homeland? Have I ever contributed to the society for its education, cleanliness, poverty, healthcare issues? How many of us have returned back to our country with foreign education only because she needs us?
The crux of the matter is we as a nation are emotional people who master the 'blame game', and not the 'self' blame game, mind you. We love pointing fingers at others without analyzing our own self. We are hypocrites with double standards, we have a strict set of rules which is applicable only on others. We decide how big a sin is and what must be the magnitude of punishment on the basis of who commits it. It's only a matter of who gets caught while doing his bit of dishonesty; just because no one is there to see my wrong acts does not make me right, innocent or a patriot. A common man would stand up, raise voices and protest violently against the players on match-fxing and doping but he would overlook the litter he just threw out of his home on the street corner, he would ignore the 'kunda' he has put up to steal the electricity, he would disregard the bribe he has paid to get his son an educational certificate and he still considers himself innocent when he mixes powdered brick in red chillies powder, mixes water in milk, sells rotten, non-halal meat.
In my opinion, we all are Butt, Amir and Asif in one way or the other, each of us have our own set of red flags, it's just that no human has yet been able to hold us accountable for our mischief and this surely does not make us any better than those who have been tried and convicted in the court of law.
"Sin seen from the thought, is a diminution or less: seen from the conscience or will, it is pravity or bad. The intellect names it shade, absence of light, and no essence. The conscience must feel it as essence, essential evil. Sin has an objective existence, but no subjective." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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