To a lady, nay, a  lioness  called Asma -  I pay my humble tribute

           A beacon of  hope she was to the oppressed and mute

           Who lit a divine torch of love, peace, liberty and goodwill

            Whose loss sends in our hearts a deep, painful, unending chill

  Let's salute this lioness amongst pygmies

                     

We in  India must shed tears over the untimely death of this brave, unorthodox, unconventional, enlightened, liberated woman- at least those of us who are not jingoists but patriots in real, liberal sense. In the present times when dark gloomy clouds of mutual hatred, muscle flexing, abuse, eye-for-an-eye kind of attitude loom low and ominous over our sub-continent, she was one of the few crusaders for peace, amity and goodwill between the people of two nations, India and Pakistan. Besides being a zealous champion for human rights and liberty, it was she who helped found Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD). And no less significant is the point that she was not an Indian but from the Taliban-infested, crisis-ridden and violence-scarred land of Pakistan where human life sells dirt cheap and such intrepid voices attract bullets rather than applause. Well, she was Asma Jahangir. As you must have read in the news, she died last Sunday, the 11^th of February, at the young age of 66, felled not by a fanatic’s bullet but sadly, owing to a heart attack. And at a time when the common people of India and Pakistan, people like you and me, needed her the most. Asma Jahangir was an advocate by profession and the first woman president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar. She was a  lady with the guts - a lioness among pygmies I would say - to take the all-powerful Pakistan army head-on for its anti-India approach, its war rhetoric, for paddling terrorism and for the ongoing sordid drama of death and destruction across the Indo-Pak border. Besides that she was an irrepressible voice for women, minorities and the LGBT community.

She was a frequent visitor to India and had a sizeable number of admirers, supporters, associates, followers and fans (myself included) in India who shared her vision and joined her mission for mutual peace with hope and gusto.

When in India she was not the one to be cowed down by the diehard, misguided, anti-Pakistan fanatics, and fundamentalists. She was as forthright and outspoken in her views here as in Pakistan. Therefore – as I read in the obituary to her in a newspaper – she had no hesitation in asking bold and blunt questions from the big and mighty in India such as Bal Thackeray on his politics of revenge and retaliation when she happened to meet him… the Bal Thackeray feared and dreaded by even the most powerful and the rich in India…and before whom the bigwigs of film industry have squirmed, cowered before and payed due obeisance to just to keep him in good humour.

The liberated souls like Asma Jahangir are rare and an almost extinct species. Both in India and more so in Pakistan. Particularly in these times: when bigotry and jingoism are rearing their ugly heads like never before; when communal, caste and religious hatred are radicalizing the nation like never before; when ‘intolerance’ is at an ascendant to the extent that even movies like ‘Padmavat’ are being sought to be banned through sheer goondagardi; where under the veneer of (perverted) logic of 'religious sentiments' or ‘old values’, even perfectly inoffensive scenes and songs are being violently protested against by the goons in the land of Kamasutra and Khajuraho.

Asma Jahangir, you leave a huge void in the sub-continent. May your kind, loving, never-to-die soul rest in eternal peace! May the rich legacy of courage, goodness, harmony and amity that you left behind keep on inspiring us!                          

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