Asia Cup: Opposition parties raise the pitch against India-Pakistan face-off

The political overtones over the India-Pakistan game of Asia Cup in Dubai on Sunday returned with calls of boycott, burning of effigies grabbing headlines throughout the day. The face-off had come under intense criticism over the last couple of months due to its timing, less than five months after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that had left 26 people dead in Jammu and Kashmir.

Opposition parties like Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were at the forefront of the protests with AAP workers and leaders burning a Pakistan-labelled effigy outside their office in the capital.

Saurabh Bharadwaj, a former minister during the AAP regime, made a public appeal to boycott clubs and restaurants which will live telecast the match. ‘’Indian government is making cricketers play with such disgusting people who wiped our sisters' sindoor. We’ll expose all the clubs and restaurants in Delhi that telecast India-Pakistan matches,’’ said Bharadwaj.

 Uddhav Thackeray, chief of the Sena (UBT), recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘’water and blood cannot flow together’’ remark over the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty, and asked how ‘blood and cricket’ go together. ‘’How can war and cricket be at the same time? They have made a business out of patriotism. They just want money,’’ said Thackeray.

 Priyanka Chaturvedi, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP, urged the people of the country to stand united against Pakistan. ‘’Pakistan cricketers were humiliating us and Operation Sindoor on their social media...We do not want to play against Pakistan till Pakistan players stop supporting terrorists,’’ she said.

Congress MP Imran Masood said people are busy minting money without caring for the ‘sisters’ who lost their husbands. ‘’It is business. There is excitement in India-Pakistan matches. Tickets are being sold at high prices. They do not care that our sisters’ sindoor has been destroyed. These people are busy making money in the name of cricket. Our sisters' families were destroyed, and they are going to play cricket with Pakistanis. The government should be ashamed,’’ he said.

 However, Anurag Thakur, a Union minister for former BCCI president argued that it was a compulsion to participate since Pakistan would earn the match points if India opts out. ‘’When multinational tournaments are organised by the ACC or the ICC, it becomes a compulsion, a necessity for nations to participate. If they don’t, they will have to forfeit the match and the other team will get the points. But India doesn’t play bilateral tournaments with Pakistan,’’ the minister said.