Two young people are in love and are planning to get married and the Indian media is all agog with the strangest of possibilities. Sania Mirza the Indian ace tennis player is all set to tie the knot with Shoaib Malik, the Pakistani cricketer. Nothing wrong in that, except that the media is making a big thing out of this Indo-Pak alliance. Sania Mirza broke off her engagement with her childhood sweetheart a few months ago, while Shoaib Malik is in a tangle with another Hyderabad girl Ayesha Siddiqui, who claims that she is married to Shoaib. I suppose this is enough and more masala for the India media to sensationalise the entire thing. Ayesha and her family has moved court and are busy running around TV studios, seeking justice for their daughter, while Sania and her family claim that they are fully aware of Shoaib’s past antecedents and believe in his innocence.
As if all this was not enough, the loonies in the rabid Shiv Sena have declared that because of this alliance, Sania has now become ineligible to represent India. They believe that by marrying a Pakistani, she has been disloyal to her country and is no more deserving of the honour of representing India. The subtext of this is also to cast aspersions on Indian Muslims at large by innuendo. What is being hinted is that the loyalties and the heart of Indian Muslims lies with Pakistan. This is exactly the kind of salacious communal propoganda on which the Sena thrives. Some self-styled spokesperson of the Sena has taken it upon himself to ensure that Sania no longer plays for India.
In Hyderabad, a defiant Shoaib Malik is tying him self in knots in explaining his past. He would like us to believe that though the signatures on his earlier ‘nikahnama’ (marriage deed) are his, he did not know whom he was marrying! Thus, he claims he was duped into marrying the wrong girl, who posed as some ‘Maha Apa’ (elder sister) and tricked him into marrying her.
The Hyderabad Police too has got into the act and have confiscated his passport and booked a case against him on Ayesha Siddiqui’s complaint. Now Ms. Siddiqui has also revealed that she terminated a pregnancy, thanks to Shoiab’s dumping her. One wonders why Ms. Siddiqui has come up with all this now after so many years of separation from Shoaib. All this is being made into a real big issue and the media is having a field day.
Now in-spite of Shoaib’s colourful past and his hard to believe protestations of gullibility and innocence in the whole affair, the fact remains that this should largely be a private affair. While, one understands that Sania and Shoaib are public figurs, their private lives should be their own business. If Shoaib has violated any laws, I am sure the law enforcement authorities will take care of it. Why is it that the media needs to carry a 24 hour tamasha on this sordid affair? Aren’t they going overboard with all this? Wouldn’t it be better if the media highlighted the nefarious designs of the Shiv Sena and its ilk, who are trying to spread hatred using this episode?
Let Sania, Shoaib and Aisha sort out their personal issues quietly and let us move on to something more significant.
