Red-Faced Like A Tomato: This viral video reveals a deep, dark truth about Pakistan
Who eats tomato bhujia, chicken tomato, egg tomato?
'Atom bomb for tomato'.
All those who are following the strange developments on social media in the wake of the Pulwama attack can easily understand what we are referring to.
A video of a Pakistani TV anchor threatening at the top of his voice to bombard India for stopping tomato exports to Pakistan has gone viral on social media for various reasons.
“Tomato Threat” by Pak media. Watch and laugh pic.twitter.com/tMAQmtTLp6
— Vijay Chauthaiwale (@vijai63) February 24, 2019
One, most people on social media on both sides of the border have no full-time job.
Two, we don’t know whether the reporter wanted to be funny or frightening. Because he managed to be neither of these two.
He uttered ‘tauba, tauba’ several times. (That’s the choice of the programme, we have nothing to complain about). He also said that Pakistan’s atom bombs are not for drawing room decoration. (Probably the support that Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan was looking for). Those are for India and the time has apparently come.
Three, and the most important, the video reveals a deep and dark truth about the country — contradictions.
Apparently, Pakistan stopped importing India’s tomatoes long ago because our tomatoes have not passed some Pakistani food safety standards. At least that’s what Pakistan’s Samaa TV would have us believe. They have Waheed Ahmed, patron-in-chief of the All Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters Importers Association, claiming that not even a kilogram of tomatoes was imported from India in the last three years.
“Not only Pakistan but the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait had also put a ban on vegetables coming from India due to the Nipah virus,” he said.
(Speak for yourself only. No need to try to pretend that you have got company.)
Well, instead of carrying out a fact-check now, can you please whisper this information to your fellow journalist who has gone red like a tomato in anger and is wasting much digital space threatening India for stopping tomato exports to Pakistan?
No, they can’t. Because that’s what the country is — full of contradictions and double standards. No match at all between words and action.
According to the enraged Pakistani gentleman, India thinks Pakistan can't survive without tomatoes.
First, going by the claim of your officials and ministers, you don't have/need Indian tomatoes.
Second, yes, Pakistan actually can't survive without tomatoes. Who eats tomato bhujia, chicken tomato, even egg tomato? Well, Pakistanis.
And that's why a Times of Islamabad report now includes expert advice on how to replace tomato in all those Pakistani recipes — with tamarind, with yogurt, with (get this) prunes.
Well, we don't know what ingredients the Pakistanis will now have to scramble for to get even the semblence of the taste of a tomato.
But what we do know is, even without the tomato at hand, our neighbours are certainly in a soup.