The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday came down heavily on the Centre over the India versus Pakistan cricket match as part of the ongoing Asia Cup series, asking how blood and games go together.
The match between the traditional rivals, which will be played in Dubai on Sunday, comes months after Operation Sindoor, a military offensive by Indian armed forces against Pakistan-based terrorists in the fallout of the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam. At least 26 people, mostly tourists were killed by the terrorists in the Baisaran Valley of Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir.
Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal called it treason, while senior party leader Manish Sisodia also questioned the NDA government. In a post on X, AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal said, “Playing a match with Pakistan is treason against the country and every Indian is very angry about it.”
Prime Minister Modi had himself declared that “talks and terrorism cannot go together.” “Have the flames of Operation Sindoor cooled so quickly that cricket matches are being played with the same terrorists?” Sisodia posed on X.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “terror and trade cannot go together” questioning, “how are blood and games going together?”
“The Government of India said that the terrorists from Pakistan carried out the (Pahalgam) incident. Then Operation SIndoor happened. Our soldiers and the public lost their lives… The Pakistan that you are fighting with, you yourself said that the Operation Sindoor is not over yet…It is PM Modi’s statement that terror and trade cannot go together. Then how are blood and games going together?” Singh said, speaking to news agency ANI.
Former Delhi minister and party Delhi unit chief Saurabh Bharadwaj condemned it as “shameful” and “a complete failure of the government to allow an India–Pakistan match.” The BJP was in the opposition; it would always demand a boycott of cricket matches with Pakistan. “But now, when they are in power, they are allowing a cricket match with Pakistan within a few months of the Pahalgam terror attack,” he said.
The women workers of the party held a protest in the national capital on Sunday and urged the people to boycott the game.
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