NEW DELHI: A day after the Indian cricket team won the Asia Cup Championship, political row erupted over PM Modi‘s congratulatory remarks, with Congress terming the Operation Sindoor mention “inappropriate”.Soon after the win, PM Modi posted on X last night saying, “#OperationSindoor on the games field. Outcome is the same – India wins! Congrats to our cricketers.”
The post drew flak from Congress, with Pawan Khera writing a direct post to PM Modi saying, “Prime Minister, firstly, comparing a cricket match to a battlefield is not appropriate.” Further taking a jibe at the PM and indirectly hinting at Trump’s repeated ceasefire claims, Khera added, “Secondly, if you must make such a comparison, you need to learn from the Indian team that when you’re close to victory, good captains don’t call for a ceasefire just because a third umpire says so.“This was the latest in series of back and forth among politicians. Earlier in the day, other Congress leaders had also taken jabs at the Prime minister. “”Sometimes I doubt if PM Modi has any knowledge of foreign policy and diplomacy. If we played, we should have played with sportsman spirit,” Atul Londhe Patil told news agency PTI. “”If Operation Sindoor is ongoing, then we shouldn’t have played. And if discussions are ongoing to normalise the situation, then sports can be a medium to improve it, but linking everything with Operation Sindoor is not right,” Patil added. Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sakpal also reacted to the Prime Minister’s post. He said: “It is clear from his tweet that, be it air, water, or sports, he brings politics into everything to polarise. We take pride in India’s victory, but we haven’t won the Asia Cup for the first time. There is a certain dignity of a country which he doesn’t maintain, and I regret this.”Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi has criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for linking India’s Asia Cup victory over Pakistan with Operation Sindoor, warning that tournament proceeds could be diverted to fund terror activities across the border. Speaking to ANI, Chaturvedi had said that the Asia Cup games between India and Pakistan “should not have happened” in the first place, questioning why India chose to play Pakistan despite its stated “zero tolerance for terror” policy. “In the first place, this match should not have happened. The cricket match that BCCI played for the benefit of PCB… the match that took place for the revenue of the broadcasters. The 140 crore people of the country did not want this match to happen,” she added.Also read: Congress slams PM Modi’s post after India’s Asia Cup win; row over playing matchOn the other hand, BJP had also taken jabs at Congress for not making a statement on India’s win. “It seems India’s stunning win against Pakistan in the Asia Cup final has left Rahul Gandhi and the entire Congress in a comatose state. Just like after #OperationSindoor, when they couldn’t bring themselves to congratulate the Indian Army for its stupendous strikes, they now appear to be waiting for permission from Mohsin Naqvi and their other handlers in Pakistan before joining the nation in celebrating the Indian cricket team’s success,” said Amit Malviya.“Put that aside — not even a single social media post from Congress congratulating our national team for thrashing Pakistan thrice in the tournament and bringing the Asia Cup home. Once again, Pakistan, Rahul Gandhi, and Congress find themselves on the same side of the divide,” he further added.India won the Asia Cup with the final against Pakistan on Sunday by 5 wickets.
