The great man’s playing the role of a nonsensical puppet brimming with professional jealousy for the greater good of the country
Allow me to put in a necessary disclaimer first of all: I am a diehard fan of Mubasher Lucman. This basically means that I might sound a tad biased in my analysis. But who cares when it is the great Mubasher Lucman that we are going to be talking about. The gladiator who has singlehandedly taken on the biggest issue facing this country right now: religious extremism; and is brave enough to fight the menace of the blasphemy law.
Mr Lucman is well aware of the threat of the blasphemy law and how it is contributing to religious extremism in the country. The law’s misuse has seen colonies being burnt, and likewise churches and temples have been torched as well. Mostly the blasphemy card is conjured when there are personal scores to settle. Furthermore, the fact that criticising the blasphemy law is considered akin to blaspheming as well now reveals how the circus surrounding the blasphemy law has become increasingly ridiculous. And who better to be associated with ridiculous stuff than Mr Lucman himself.
He has realised that the best way to make the insanity prominent is to highlight the absurdities surrounding the blasphemy law. And that is precisely what the great man is doing vis-à-vis Baba Jee these days.
Mubasher Lucman is playing a wonderful game here. He is portraying himself as this egocentric, nonsensical anchor person whose strings are being pulled by the powers that be, and who is brimming with professional jealousy, which is driving him on in his jihad against Geo. Jingoists love him, rationalists abhor him – that is the part the great man has got to play to sort out the mess in this country.
Just think about it. Do you actually believe a sane adult who happens to have penetrated inside the very dangerous realm of journalism would accuse someone of blasphemy just because they narrated a Quranic tale in a metaphorical way? And for playing a Qawwali that most of the Shia weddings in Pakistan witness?
Ignoring the fact that it would invite the wrath of the metaphorical takfiris’ wrath, anyone would see that this means taking professional rivalry to a whole new, unprecedentedly dangerous level. Why would anyone put someone’s life in danger in the ratings war? It is not as if it is an actual war.
Do you not see what Mr Lucman has done here? He has showed us all how the blasphemy allegation can be twisted to put someone’s life in danger. Someone who might not have in their wildest dream dreamt about defaming any religious sentiment. Case in point: the poor girl from the Geo drama’s clip talking about iddat, who made Allama Hassan Zafar Naqvi cry live on TV and is now smack in the middle of the blasphemy row. What is the poor girl’s fault? All this for ratings?
Nope, all of this was necessary to highlight the misuse of the blasphemy law. And to prove how absurd it can be, Mr Lucman has conjured the most absurd of absurdities from within and seemingly bombarded with allegations of blasphemy. It would be pretty safe to suggest that no one has made a stronger case for repealing the blasphemy law. Ever.
It was always important that a big fish got formally accused of blasphemy, with the consensus of the mullahs of course. Even though it is not likely at all, but once the big guns get embroiled in blasphemy allegations, some action might be taken against the blasphemy law as it stands.
It is easy to accuse poor Hindus, Christians and Ahmadis and torture them for blasphemy. It has to be a big shot, facing down the barrel of the blasphemy shotgun for there to be even an iota of a possibility of a rude awakening. And the great Mubasher Lucman had to excommunicate Geo to do that, taking “literal interpretation of Quran” to a whole new level live on ARY, making himself seem like a sick-minded buffoon, for the greater good of the country. TTP’s interpretation seems almost metaphorical now.
The writer is a renowned proponent of the Lucmanean school of thought and tries to avoid blaspheming as much as possible. All side effects of The Horizontal Column are the readers’ headache.