In a fateful moment of our recent history, US President Bush had uttered ‘either you are with us or against us’. His words cast a spell on the world and condemned us all to a political myopia. We are since then stuck between these two choices. We find everything either black or white.

 

Whichever of the two you are, you can be sure of one thing that this determinism in the dominant political discourse has mauled our ability to think. It puts a premium on buying in one or the other narrative, denigrates any attempt to question, contemplate and reflect, and punishes even slight violations with fatwas and labeling. I find it lethal to progress.

The hanging of a leader of Bangladesh’s banned Jamaat-e-Islami, Abdul Qader Mullah, by its war crimes court is the latest fault line. You can either celebrate ‘the much deserved death of a mullah’ or mourn over another vicious attack on Pakistan’s sullen pride.

Remember, if you tried to question the credibility of the court and the legal process you will be pushed to the side on which you may not be standing, notwithstanding the fact that not a single human rights organisation across the globe thinks that the court met even the basic requirements for administering justice.

You shall face even sterner expulsion orders if you dared to discuss the role of Pakistan Army and its cohorts in Bangladesh in 1971, without any regard to the fact that the entire world considers it an undeniable truth that heinous acts of mass crimes were committed against Bengalis.