Friday, April 4, 2008

A Letter to Aamir Khan

Dear Aamir

Yes Olymic Games do not belong to China, as you have written in your site. But this time it is this game that has become an issue for China, precisely because for the first time in history the rabid atrocities of the Chinese communist regime is embarrassingly exposed in the wake of the Olympic. This is true again that you will find thousand arguments in favour of Beijing Olympic, for Olympic is too big an event and China is too big a country, on the other hand Tibet is too small a nation and too poor a people. This is the people of Tibet who need you much more than the Chinese dictators. Beijing will happen with or without your Torch run, but your absence would give the hapless people of Tibet a great sense of reassurance that a man of your stature and sensibility stood by them when they needed this the most. This is a moment for a huge decision. Your decision can change so much as Robert Frost would say how the road he had taken less travelled by made so much of difference. If you run with the torch in Delhi, it becomes part of a simple ritual only to be highlighted by unprecedented security cover that had never happened for sports in history and you make yourself so insignificant immediately after that; but if you are not their you extend a stronger arm to a nation fighting all alone with a very fundamental dream a man deserves to have.

Tibet and human rights violations in general are two different things. The people of Tibet are being subjected to the subjugation of their souls, mutilation of their identity, destruction of their culture, religion, history and ethical world view. This is not a case of mere state violation of human rights, insurgency or the so called law and order contingency. We deeply expect you to stand up bigger at this juncture of history. We cannot isolate sports from human predicaments. If sports fail to celebrate simple human aspirations and reduces itself into a nasty challenge against a nation, no matter how small that nation is, then that very sports degenerates into an emblem of anti-humanism. The Chinese regimen expects to register a symbolic victory over the people of Tibet through Beijing Olympic. With your run we all witness a defeat, not only of the people of Tibet but of our own conscience, the whole of human civilization.

History has given you a huge moment to become a formidable voice to articulate the agonies of fellow human beings through your silence. Do not let it go waste. For the first time with you if we do not run we achieve the courage to reach a greater destination for the people of Tibet, for the people of the world. At this juncture of history we desperately in search of real Heroes. Baichung has proved to be one. With you we will raise together a flag of different shade- the banner of Buddha.

PLEASE DO NOT RUN !!