It has just been a little more than a week when the Pulwama terror attack shook the conscience of the nation. People are still facing a hard time getting over the ghastly terror attack. In wake of the attack, the nation as well as the government has made up its mind to end all bilateral initiatives with the terror state. Additionally, the cricket World Cup is going to take place in a few months and there has been a vocal demand to boycott Pakistan during the World Cup.
Even as the Union Minister of Home Affairs, Rajnath Singh has made it clear that there is no question of a cricket match with Pakistan. He said, “Pakistan ke saath cricket bilkul nahi khelna chahiye. Kitna bhi nuksan hojaye. Yeh mera vyaktigat padh hai. Bilkul nahi karna chahiye. (We should not play cricket with Pakistan even if we have to suffer monetary loss. This is my personal opinion that there should be no match.)” But it is flummoxing that despite popular sentiment against playing cricket with Pakistan and even the Home Minister opining against it, the usual suspects have batted for the game with Pakistan.
Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor made a bizarre argument in order to defend playing cricket with Pakistan. He tweeted, “Reminder: at the height of the 1999 Kargil War, India played Pakistan in the cricket World Cup, & won. To forfeit the match this year would not just cost two points: it would be worse than surrender, since it would be defeat without a fight.”
Reminder: at the height of the 1999 Kargil War, India played Pakistan in the cricket World Cup, & won. To forfeit the match this year would not just cost two points: it would be worse than surrender, since it would be defeat without a fight. https://t.co/RDgn7VEB5r
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) February 22, 2019
It seems that Shashi Tharoor does not understand the point in issue. The fact remains that a cricket ground is no battle field. The game is a form of healthy competition but ideals such as humanity and sportsman spirit don’t really work with countries like Pakistan. What the people of India want is to boycott Pakistan in all walks of life and to expose the terrorist country on every front. Ideologies such as fighting or surrendering on the field do not really matter here. It is interesting to note that it is usually the left-liberal cabal which pleads not to mix things like art, culture and sports with politics. It is rather shocking that Shashi Tharoor who epitomises the left-liberal cabal is now taking a cricket match so seriously. This goes against the very premise of the ideology he claims to represent.
According to Republic TV, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has also spoken in support of playing a match with Pakistan. This does not come as much of a surprise. One must not forget that before entering the political arena, Tejashwi Yadav had an ‘illustrious career’ as a cricketer. It seems that he is still not able to get above the ‘fruitless’ passion for cricket in his life and look at the larger picture.
The way these two politicians have spoken in favour of playing cricket with Pakistan displays the apathy of a particular brand of politicians towards the Pulwama martyrs. This makes it clear that while such bravehearts can sacrifice their lives for the nation, we have certain elements within our country who can’t even forgo a cricket match in order to boycott the country which carried out the dastardly terror attack.