To step away from the scraps of power is courage of the highest order.
Seeing Pakistan in a negative light, and often with presumed bad faith, has become second nature to many of us in India. To be fair to the Indian psyche, this instinct is the product of three-quarters of a century of lived and inherited experience. There is no doubt that such presumptions arise from a hardened mistrust accumulated over generations.
Yet it would, and should, contradict the Indian spirit to assume that a Pakistani is, merely by virtue of his or her nationality, a bad person. We conflate, far too often, a place and its political tendencies with the morals of its people. There are men, women, and children on both sides of the border who, if given a real choice, would choose peace over war, principles over perversion, and ideals over opportunism.
This piece is an ode to one such man—who today stands as a beacon of hope for those in Pakistan who continue to care for progressive values, for justice, and for a government of laws rather than one of kings.