During last night’s World Cup match between Pakistan and Australia, a policeman stopped a Pakistani fan from chanting slogans of “Pakistan Zindabad” in the stadium.
In Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, a Pakistani fan was chanting slogans of “Pakistan Zindabad” in the crowd to support his country in the match against Australia. As he was chanting pro-Pakistani slogans, an Indian policeman walked to him and asked him to stop chanting these slogans. On this, the Pakistani fan rightfully argued with him, telling him that he was a Pakistani and that he was in the stadium to support his team. The fan further added that it is ok to say “Bharat ki jai” but not “Pakistan Zindabad”.
The situation between the fan and the policeman got a little intense; another fan recorded the whole incident visually on his mobile phone. When the policeman observed that the incident had been captured, he moved away. Another Indian man from the administration asked the Pakistani fan to calm down and enjoy the match in a respectful manner.
This incident has raised lots of questions about Indian administration and management. This shows tremendous discrimination towards Pakistan and Pakistani fans by Indian management during the World Cup.
Even after Pakistan’s previous match against India, the Pakistan team’s director, Micky Arthur, expressed his concerns, stating that the match didn’t look like an ICC tournament; it seemed like a BCCI event.
These are not the only incidents happening with Pakistani fans and the Pakistani team in India. After a man-of-the-match performance by Mohammad Rizwan against Sri Lanka. The wicketkeeper-batsman wrote on Twitter that he dedicates his man of the match to the brothers and sisters of Palestine. On this, Indian sports journalist Vikrant Gupta asked the ICC to take action on Rizwan’s tweet.
Sports and the arts should be used as vehicles to spread love, harmony, and peace among people and between nations. India has been doing the opposite of this recently in the ICC World Cup. Fans all around the globe are taking to social media to express their opinions on the recent incident.