Arundhati ‘Pakistani’ and Ram Sene ‘Patriotic’ Beena Sarwar

"Shouldn't Arundhati Roy come from Pakistan?" sarcastically asked a freelance journalist in Delhi, commenting on a panel discussion, Does Media Jingoism Fan India-Pakistan Tensions? The jibe stemmed from his annoyance at Roy's consistent exposure of India's 'warts'.

Besides Arundhati, the panel, organised by the recently formed Forum of Media Professionals (www.fmp.org) at the India International Centre (IIC) on April 15, included four journalists from India. I was among the four from Pakistan in addition to The Hindu's Islamabad correspondent, Nirupama Subramanian, who was also billed as coming from Pakistan.

The dig at Arundhati set me thinking that Delhi may be cleaner and greener since I was last here five years ago, but another kind of pollution lingers, reminiscent of a phenomenon we face in Pakistan: Rightwing jingoism fuelled by emotional appeals to religion and nationalism. It feeds the bigoted competitiveness of many Indians and Pakistanis who are gleeful and self-congratulatory when they can point out how much worse off and 'different' the other is.