22 Comments

Well said Rana. Kohli needs the support of all decent people in India and around the world.

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Time will come when everyone speak on injustice to be done on Dalits, OBC or Minorities which help to save our country and live together, respecting each other peacefully.

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Very well written...👏

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Well said Rana! I second every word you said. Captain Kohli needs to be lauded and every stupid lowlife hindutwa bigot needs to be condemned like Kohli did

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:Thhanda" matlab "coca-cola", "Lowlife Bigot" matlab "Sulli-Sulla"

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Absolutely. "Lowlife bigot" is a word that can only be associated with the Lawdence of Arabia and his followers with a cute spout and curly tails. How dare Hindus try to be lowlife bigot and try to equate parity with the Bhootiya in the Sky, his Bhootiya Passenger on Earth and their Bhootiya worshippers?

I totally defend yours and Rana Bibi's right to be uniquely rotten low-life bigots and I will personally ensure that no Hindu ever tries to be a low-life bigot and compete with muslims.

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Well crafted article.

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Ms Rana defends Kohli - but I will not defend that so called "captain".

Yes, Kohli did speak as did the BCCI and a few other elder statesmen of Indian cricket. But that did not happen immediately and spontaneously. It was only when the foreign press pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of the Indian team's knee-gesture in solidarity with BLM whilst not rushing to defend Shami that Kohli and Co woke up. The deafening silence from Kohli, his team-mates, the BCCI and other famous cricketers from the cricket establishment of India soon became a PR nightmare for the nation. It was only when this realisation dawned upon India's cricketocracy that Kohli, the BCCI and other cricketers came out in support of Shami.

This is not the first time in these Hindutva times that Indian cricketers have refused to show support for their Muslim player colleagues. As coach of Uttarkhand, former India Test player Wasim Jaffer also faced the same trolling and hate as Shami has done now.

The notion of playing for India as opposed to various states of the country was actually instilled in the Indian team by no less a man than the Nawab of Pataudi, a Muslim. He forged and united the Indian team like no other captain before him had done. I suppose Pataudi (RIP) would be turning in his grave seeing the developments in Indian cricket today.

I must quote Wassim Jaffer who encouraged Mohammad Siraj who was being booed and taunted in Australia with the following tweet:

"Even if there's little or no crowd to cheer you on, no better motivation than playing for India. As a legend once said "You don't play for the crowd, you play for the country"

But then the likes of Wassim Jaffer, the Nawab of Pataudi, Bishen Singh Bedi, GR Vishwanath, Farokh Engineer, EAS Prasanna and so on played for the country. And as gentlemen and true sportsmen, they played cricket. And they played for India. Kohli and the present generation of cricketers play for the crowd, the baying, bigoted and fascist Hindutva crowd.

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I didn't remembered , you have shown your English skills & such stupidity to write atrocities on Bangladesh Hindus, Killings of Hindus & Sikhs in Pak & Afghan.. why only one side you high-light? ?? do you think you are over-smart & world is stupid to believe in your biased propaganda.. You r worst that terrorist causing more divisions among people...

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Mr Suhas Patil: Is there a requirement that you must first criticise whichever atrocity that you Mr Patil happens choose before criticising Hindutva hatred? And how does criticising atrocities in other countries diminish atrocities that your Hindutva inspired buddies commit in India? After all, if you are a true patriot, you would strive to rid your own country of bigots and mass murderers like Babu Bajrangi, Dr Mayaben Kodnani and rabble-rousers like Praveen Togadia, Adityanath, Pramod Muthalik and so on wouldn't you?

As the famous US Civil Rights lawyer Clarence Darrow wonderfully put it:

"True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else"

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@Swiss Franx : "Is there a requirement that you must first criticise whichever atrocity that you Mr Patil happens choose before criticising Hindutva hatred? --It is a fair point and I agree.. I don't agree with whataboutery that goes along with supporting causes. You can choose your causes and ignore the ones you want as long law is being followed.. And you may choose causes that may be international in nature and ignore national causes if you wish -- It is an individual choice and individual is paramount !! But then by that logic which you also kind of allude Rana is totally unjustified in criticizing cricketers for not standing up against so called atrocities of the Government or on Muslims ..She shouldn't be expecting Indian cricketers or filmstars to support causes she believes in And fact of the matter is that everything has two perspectives ..Right or wrong is a matter of perspective often. Public figures first of all have no obligation or duty to fight for any cause. It is their individual choice and they too are allowed to have their own perspective of a given topic ! This also applies to those pro-Hindutva people who complain that Rana or for that matter media raises certain points/causes while ignoring others are also wrong and unjustified. Rana has every right to support causes of her choice .. No one can criticize her for that ..Yes criticism can be on the merits of the cause but not for the support in itself .If Indian cricketers want to support BLM it is their individual right.. No one has a right to even think of dictating what causes these guys need to support !! I won't like anyone telling me which causes I should support and which I shouldn't !!

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RK - Thanks for the nicely crafted, sober reply. And apologies for the delay in my response - I do have a demanding day job.

While you are right in that people can choose to espouse causes they like and ignore others, Virat Kohli in particular does not have that choice. And to a slightly lesser extent neither does the BCCI. And for that matter even the elder statesmen of Indian cricket who seem to have an opinion about everything but uncharacteristically kept quiet when Shami was abused.

Fact is, Virat Kohli is the captain of the Indian team and he does not have the luxury of keeping quiet when one of his team-members was singled out for abuse because of his religion. I manage a team of people and I would be the first to defend my staff members if one of them was insulted or attacked. That responsibility goes with the job and Virat failed in his role. Yes, he, like the BCCI and the rest of the Indian cricketocracy rallied to defend Shami when the foreign press decried the treatment meted out to Shami and India's image created in the Hindutva worldview took yet another beating. But there was no spontaneous effort to support Shami. Virat Kohli failed him, the rest of the team failed, the BCCI failed him and so did the elder statesmen of Indian cricket - the Dhonis, the Tendulkars, the Laxmans, the Gangulys and so on. That is where the idea of India shows another crack in its visage.

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I think you didn't get my point or atleast what I was discussing.. Read my post again .. It doesn't have Shami mentioned anywhere :-) . Not even once. So I wasn't talking about Shami issue though I will come to it later...I was talking about Rana Ayub's point that Indian players should be taking knee against incidents against Muslims in India instead of BLM --atleast that is what she implied.. My point is it is players' right to decide whether to knee for BLM or for Indian Muslims. None of Rana's business nor that matter of rightwing trolls who too criticized the team for taking knee for BLM..

As for Shami issue I am very glad that Kohli spoke up but does he have truly have a choice?? Most likely he doesn't have one like you have as a manager. Is Kohli duty bound --it is actually a matter of perception--may be from a moralistic point of view he is duty bound but from pragmatic and a contractual point of view he is not . BCCI has a pretty strict code of conduct on what its players can say to media particularly on non-cricketing affairs. Given trolling of Shami had political connotations BCCI itself took almost 48-72 hrs to come up with a response and BCCI has never ever been an apolitical organization. BCCI doesn't operate in a vacuum. Kohli would have had to take approval from BCCI for his statement before he aired it. In real world morality most of the times takes a backseat to pragmatism -- it always has .. it always will . So even if Kohli wanted to come up in defense of Shami earlier he probably had to think of taking BCCI's approval first as it might very well be in his contract !

But most importantly defending your team mate or your employee (Shami is BCCI's employee) is not fighting for a cause. It is way more simpler as it is very specific .You make your point and you are done.. Fighting for causes is way more than just making sporadic statements .. It takes lot of dedication and lot of sacrifices. Frankly Indian team taking a knee for BLM doesn't make any difference either. They are not sacrificing a really well paid career like say Colin Kaepernick did..

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Mr/MS RK: Thanks for the prompt response. Much appreciated.

Yes, your initial comment does not mention Shami anywhere. However, coming as it does in an article by Ms Ayyub where the Shami incident has been the trigger, I don't think that it is entirely ir-relevant to respond to you with the Shami incident figuring as a background to my comment.

You re-iterate your initial claim that it is solely the players' prerogatives when it comes to choice of causes they wish to support - or not. Yet you also contradict yourself - albeit ever so slightly - by suggesting that contractual obligations between Kohli and the BCCI would have prevented the very wealthy Kohli from doing what was morally correct.  Aren't you then admitting tacitly that he did not have a choice?

But rather than dwelling on contracts and other obligations, you seem to have missed my larger and perhaps more philosophical point i.e. taking a righteous stand when you see injustice being done to one from your family and fraternity. India has in the past had a player and captain called Bishen Singh Bedi who stood up for the rights of his teammates when injustice was done to them. Bedi stood up to the BCCI, intimidatory bowling tactics practised by the West Indies and Pakistan, accommodation conditions of India's Test players, their salaries and so on. Indeed, Bedi was such a thorn on the BCCI's side that it all its weight and might on this lone man and tried to break him - and yet got nowhere. You can see some interviews with Bedi here : bit.ly/3cxPgor  and here: bit.ly/3nCrDBa

My limited point here though is: Virat Kohli is no Bishen Singh Bedi. One played cricket, the other played for himself.

And I reckon you know by now who gets my salute. 

PS: Great debating with you RK - we can disagree without becoming disagreeable !

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Aryan is out after spending mere 3 weeks in jail - an eternity for the privileged but par for the course and in fact pretty mild for the ordinary folks who waste years awaiting trial or bail. Shami and Kohli have already moved on. But madam needs to sell constant victimhood of muslims to stay in business. So she waits on the next opportunity. I guess the inconvenient fact that Kohli speaking up and Aryan out on bail is not going to stop the trolls or the prosecutors is of little issue.

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Pranam troll-ji. Aaphi ki baat horahi hai article mei, kabhi mudde ko bhi samajhliya kariye. Dhanyawaad.

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Well said !

But Troll-ji has to fulfill his congenital need to dish out his daily dose of hatred for minorities and blind support for his Hindutva masters.

Welcome to Modistan!

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Madam Rana is is not playing the victimhood card. She is worried by this kind of mindset as are all decent humans in India and elsewhere. Listen to the the vile Nazi-like talk yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCyBL8dBOEo

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Mr Shivam:

In 2002, Bilkis Bano, then a 20 year old Muslim woman and the rest of the female members of her family fled Ahmedabad for the outskirts of the town. Bano had a 3 year old infant Saleha and her; her cousin who had given birth to a child the day before had a 1 day old infant with her. That was when your Hindutva friends violently assaulted this group and committed one of the many acts that even the bloody Nazis shied from. Saleha's head was smashed on a rock, killing her instantly; Banos cousin and her mother were gangraped and killed; Bano's cousin's 1 day old infant was also killed as were all the women in that group, barring Bilkis Bano.

Bano was hounded by the Modi government and she feared for her life. She did win a compensation after a nearly 2 decade long court battle and that too after interventions by the Supreme Court.

I guess Mr Shivam, you should go and tell Ms Bilkis Bano:

"Saleha was killed, too bad. You, your cousin, your mother and the rest of the women in your family were gang-raped and killed. Too bad that too. But remember that you are privileged as you are an Indian Muslim and we didn't kill you. And besides, therer are ordinary people awaiting trial or bail for many years".

Do you think Mr Shivam that Ms Bilkis Bano has simply "moved on" ? And that she should not be talking of the "constant victimhood of Muslims" ?

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