“Chaalis korodon ki awaaz: Sehgal – Dhillon – Shah Nawaz”
In the 1965 Indo-Pak war, the resignation of Gen Shahnawaz Khan, previously of the INA (and on whom the treason trial was run, along with Col Sehgal and Gen Dhillon) and 5-time MP from Meerut, who was then the Minister of Food & Agriculture in the Lal Bahadur Shastri government, was demanded by the Jan Sangh because his son, Mahmood was an officer in the Pakistani Army, but Shastri refused because he had complete faith in his minister and a citizen of India to stand by the country.
In 2021, we jail people who cheer when the Pakistan Cricket Board cricket team wins (after playing some scintillating cricket) against the team fielded by the Board of Control for Cricket in India because we think they are traitors and anti-nationals.
This is how far we have come.
Extra bit for the curious types: Shahnawaz Khan adopted a girl, Lateef Fatima, and then got her married to another freedom fighter, Meer Taj Mohammed Khan who came over from the freshly-minted Pakistan to throw his lot with India. Fatima and Meer Taj Mohammed are the parents of Shah Rukh Khan. As I said, we have come a long way from a time when Sapru, Nehru, Desai, Ali, Katju et al defended Gen Khan from a charge of treason to a time when Aryan required 25 days in jail to get bail, his right, and needed a string of celebrity lawyers to make it happen. It is indeed a small world. That just happens to be going to hell in a handbasket.
