Why blame Pakistan for all attacks on India?

Indian consulate in Herat (Source: Google)

ON Friday, heavily armed militants launched a gun attack on the Indian Consulate in Herat, a western city in Afghanistan.

Even as a gun battle raged between the Afghan Army, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the insurgents, Twitter went abuzz with many of our compatriots pointing fingers at Pakistan. 

Most users who took to the social networking site seemed to already ‘know’ that it was Pakistan attacking the Indian Consulate.

Even news channels weren’t far behind when it came to pinning the blame on Pakistan, as if they had accepted responsibility for the attack in front of world leaders and on TV channels. 

Twitter and other social networking sites give us the opportunity to share our thoughts with the world, but do they also give us the licence to blame a country for any wrongdoing that happens at Indian consulates or with Indian delegates around the world? 

Are we in a state of war with Pakistan? Certainly not! 

With both India and Pakistan being nuclear states, do we really want to take that road?

While here, our PM-elect Narendra Modi is trying to mend relations of the two nations by inviting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to attend his oath-taking ceremony on May 26, Indians are busy throwing it all away. 

This can be judged by one of the tweets that was posted just after the attack in Afghanistan: “This is Pakistan’s answer to Modi’s invitation”. 

Every Indian has the right to freedom of speech and expression, and we should be thankful for that. 

Imagine living in a country like China with no right to speak freely. People in that country don’t even have the freedom to have as many children as they want. 

But with freedom comes responsibility, and by exploiting freedom, we are doing no favours to anyone, least of all ourselves. 

It is time we stop misusing our rights and give serious thought to what we have and how we put it to use - especially on a forum that is accessible to all.

© 2014 Nasreen Ghani

Published in Daily Mail and Mail Today
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2638906/Pakistan-India-Why-blame-Pakistan-attacks-India.html