ISLAMABAD: During the First World War, it was state policy in Russia that all its citizens had to support the war in order to show their patriotism.

However, Vladimir Lenin, who was a communist revolutionary, revolted and after coming into power, decided to pull out from the war. But he cannot be called a traitor.

This was stated by Prof Yousuf Hassan, representative of the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) on Thursday at a dialogue titled ‘What is Patriotism?’ organised by the PWA at the Pakistan Academy of Letters.

“Lenin’s decision shows that people should not accept the inhumane decisions of rulers because patriotism is not accepting all decisions without considering them,” he said.

He added that religious parties were against the creation of Pakistan while the Communist Party of India was for it, which is not discussed in history books in Pakistan.

“On the other hand, we took wrong decisions in the name of patriotism due to which East Pakistan separated and we are also facing the problem of religious militancy and sectarianism which is also affecting our relations with neighbouring countries,” he said.

Awami Workers Party President Punjab Asim Sajjad said no one in Pakistan speaks about defence because it is deemed unpatriotic.

“Nuclear bombs are made to protect people but here it is said we have to sacrifice our lives in order to save our nuclear bombs. Our nuclear bomb also has a religion and is called the Islamic bomb and it has therefore become our religious duty to protect it,” he said.

Mr Sajjad said the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is another untouchable subject as debates on it are deemed unpatriotic.

An AWP member Waqas Malik said a large amount of public money was wasted on the air show held on Independence Day which could have been used for addressing people’s problems.

A student of a local university, Qaisera Ikram, said here people are called patriotic as long as they do not speak for their rights.

“I fear that in a few years, those who do not wear white and green on Independence Day will be declared traitors,” she said.

Even when they cannot get enough food, the people of this country are expected to say Pakistan is the best country and provides them with the best facilities, she said.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2017