Sports is the common ground among the world nations including the cricket arch-rivals and Asian cricket giants i.e., Pakistan and India and as such the ideology of sports should be kept at bay from the politics. However, the so-called secular Indian state leaves no opportunities to mingle sports with politics and let it overshadow by the Hindu fanatics’ dirty politics of discrimination and fanatic.

More often than not, Indian cricket board refuses to send team to Pakisan to play cricket on Pak soil on one pretext or the other, which is a matter of shame for the scalled India’s biggest democracy in the world.

Once again, the Asian Cricket Council President and Indian Cricket Board Secretary Jay Shah has let the politivcs overshadow sports as it refused to send the Indian team to Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023, citing security reasons.

The cricket analysts do not agree with the Indian Board claim regarding security situaiton in Pakistan as currently the New Zealand cricekt team is in Pakistan while duirng the last two years a number of world teams have visited Paksitan. They incldue the Aussies and England cricket teams which played full series in Pakistan and were provided fool proof security.

As a matter of fact, India has always mingled sports with politics.

Strange are the ways of Indian democracy. On one hand it claims to be the world’s biggest secular state while on the other it is so incapable to separate sports from poltics.

It is indeed a bitter fact that India has never left any occasion to malign Pakistan cricket and always makes a fuss over security issues while the security in Indian is also known to world.

Its moves to mingle sports with politivcs are the innate desire of hegemony and its continued negative propaganda against Pakistan.

It may be recalled here that during the T20 World Cup in 2021, India was fully exports. The way the Indian government reacted to the loss against Pakistan in UAE during the match of the ongoing T20 World Cup is a case in point.

As reported, the Modi administration was out to slap sedition charges on Muslims, who cheered on the Pakistani team for their victory in the T20 cup encounter.

In the backdrop of the Indian cricket team’s humiliating defeat to the Green shirts in the then T20 cricket world cup two years back, the BJP fanatics descended into a fit of hate, harassing  Mohammed Shami, who was the only Muslim player in the then Indian side.

In fact, such an attack on the Muslim member of the Indian team was the pathetic thing that the Modi’s hate squads  openly committed.

Just imagine, elsewhere in India whether it the state of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan or any other part of India, as many as 20 people (mainly young Muslims) were arrested and charged for sedition for cheering Pakistan’s victory in the match.

 Both India and Pakistan are arch cricket rivals but this does not mean that Indian govt would go to the extent of transferring bitter cricket rivalry into an extreme action of levelling sedition charges against cricket fans, which was a new low because sedition cases carry extreme punishments up to life sentence.

Sports is a sports and such an adverse reaction to Pakistan’s victories in cricket or other sports against India is enough to expose the hidden designs of hatred and hegemony of the Indian government, who is out to destroy the peace of the entire region.

It was due to Indian propaganda against Pakistan’s security situation that New Zealand and England cancelled their planned tours of Pakistan two years ago and in this way the Pakistan’s fans were deprived of watching the world cricketers playing in front of their eyes on their home grounds.

Moreover, the cancellation of the two tours also had adverse effects on the arrival of tourists in Pakistan as the Indian smear propaganda was at its peak in the 2021.

The ICC (International Cricket Council) should have taken serious note of the situation but that was not the case due to fact that India is biggest cricketing market and so the cricket world let India get away with anything.

Unfortunately, the patrons of the Hindutva brigade are out and the reports of incidents like harassing the Muslim sports persons in India for being Muslim are enough to prove that Indian sports persons are being harassed to the point that they do not feel safe and even their lives are in danger.

Even the sports fans are not spared and a female school teacher was arrested in Rajasthan and was also terminated from her job because she had posted “we won!”, along with a photograph of the Pakistan cricket team, on social media and was celebrating Pakistan’s victory over India in cricket event in the past.

In Indian held Jammu and Kashmir, dozens of youths mostly students were arrested for raising pro-Pakistan slogans, they have also been booked under an anti-terror law which carries heavy punishment.

Those who post pro Pakistan comments on social media are taken into custody for committing an offense of cyber terrorism under India’s IT act, while the charge of sedition is added before they appear before the magistrate in court.

The way the hardliner Modi men lose their minds after the Pakistan’s grand victory against team India in any Indo-Pak encounter is a reflection on the so-called Indian claims to be the world’s biggest secular state.

One wonders as to why the world cricket playing nations are silent on Indian moves to malign Pakistan cricket and refuse to play in Pakistan and also carrying negative propaganda our sports venues for so-called security reasons.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 18 2023

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