Revisiting Javed Akhtar.

AT the Faiz Festival in Lahore Javed Akhtar was asked to tell Indians that not all Pakistanis were terrorists. In response, he said two things. First, that the two countries needed to communicate more to dispel such misperceptions and that Pakistan was more closed than India. Second, that Pakistanis should understand if Indians were upset because the perpetrators of 26/11 were still roaming around freely in the country. The remarks unleashed a nasty storm on social media.

Javed Akhtar was criticised for one or more of the following transgressions: insulting Pakistan on Pakistani soil, embarrassing his hosts, and being undiplomatic. Along with this, any number of motivations were ascribed to his pronouncements: humiliating Pakistan, currying favour with the BJP, being an Uncle Tom, etc.

In all this, the focus on what he said was lost. It was revealed, yet again, that Pakistanis on social media lacked the ability for civil and reasoned discourse. They hid that weakness by raising their voices and hurling abuse - the classic tactic of avoiding the message by attacking the messenger.

We are used to this in Pakistan. Many issues cannot be discussed because those raising them are labelled anti-national or anti-religion. If needed, agents to whom violence has been outsourced can be sent after them. On other issues, discussion is precluded by declaring it a crime liable to punishment.

If we believe Javed Akhtar to be wrong we can debate and argue as Faiz would have wanted us to.

This suppression of dissent does not make the issues go away. Instead, they fester at a cost that is now undeniable with the country on its knees. It also erodes the ability to address issues even when the will is present. Unsurprisingly, cock-eyed experiments like the hybrid solution, by people who only hear their own voices, compound problems they are intended to solve.

The net result is that truths in Pakistan have assumed such overwhelming and scary proportions that they cannot even be acknowledged. Those on social media do not have what in Urdu would be called the 'hausla' to face them. They can only deny them by indulging in cowardly attacks and specious whataboutery. These 'victories' are self-defeating. The Pakistani ship has run aground and is listing badly though the social media crowd may not yet be feeling the pain.

Back to Javed Akhtar. His first claim is debatable and much evidence can substantiate a refutation. True, Lata Mangeshkar was not invited to...