Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
Two days have passed since Team India’s defeat in the World Cup, but the pain of defeat is still there in everyone’s mind. Everyone was so stunned on Sunday night that no one could understand what to do, what to do, what to say? How did the team which won 10 out of 10 matches in the World Cup lose in the final? A lot of reactions came. Shubhman Gill wrote on Twitter that 16 hours have passed but there is still as much pain in the heart as it was last night. Shreyas Iyer wrote that we are all still very sad, the pain of this defeat is unbearable. Perhaps it will take a lot of time to recover from this. This was the first World Cup for both these batsmen. Sachin Tendulkar wrote that I can understand the pain of the players, I know how much pain a bad day will cause, but in sports there are wins and losses, we should remember how well the team played throughout the tournament. In fact, till the last moment on Sunday night, people thought that a miracle would happen. How could the team that had the best batting and best bowling in the entire tournament lose in the final? Who could have imagined that such silence would prevail in a stadium filled with 1,20,000 people, resonating with slogans of India, India? But it is not possible that in the field where Modi is present, his opponents do not jump. Modi only talked about cricket, talked about the spirit of the game, encouraged the players, but Modi’s opponents commented on everything Modi said in the stadium. Posted a lot of videos. There were many rude comments. I will mention two incidents that happened during the match. Firstly, when the match was going on, Modi was sitting in the stadium, Amit Shah was with him. When the camera went to Modi, he was laughing at something. Slogans of ‘Modi Modi’ also echoed in the stadium. Modi waved his hand and replied to the people present there. A lot of comments were made regarding this. When it was said that the Indian team was losing, Modi was laughing. I think these comments were inappropriate because the match was going on at that time. The Indian team was trying with all its might to bring down Australia’s fourth wicket. It was becoming difficult for the Australian batsmen to score runs and secondly, how could anyone even think that the Indian team would lose and Modi would be happy. That’s why the whole thing is meaningless.
After campaigning in Rajasthan, Modi reached Ahmedabad on Sunday to watch the World Cup final. When the whole country was cheering for Team India’s victory, the Prime Minister also reached the stadium to keep the team’s morale high. He was also accompanied by Home Minister Amit Shah and the Governor of Gujarat. During the match, Modi started laughing at something. Even when people greeted him, he waved to them, but after the match was over, pictures of Rohit Sharma crying and Modi laughing were posted on social media. An attempt was made to show that Modi was happy with Team India’s defeat. Congress spokesperson Supriya Srinet even wrote a post on Twitter asking, what exactly was the Prime Minister laughing at? The second video surfaced showed Modi going on stage to hand over the trophy to Australian captain Pat Cummins and then showed how he quickly left the stage. People wrote, Modi did not show proper sportsmanship, did not congratulate the Australian team captain properly. Left him alone on the stage. This is not Indian culture, but what was shown was half truth. If you watch the entire video, you will see that along with Modi, Australia’s Deputy PM is also there. Both went on stage. Gave the trophy to the captain of the Australian team, shook hands, congratulated Pat Cummins and then returned and met the rest of the Australian players one by one. Congratulated everyone. The presenters disappeared this part of the video. When the entire video surfaced, the comments made proved to be meaningless. The Prime Minister did what was the sentiment of the entire country.
The whole country is standing with Team India which performed brilliantly during the World Cup, but the surprising thing is that some leaders of Congress, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and Trinamool Congress did politics on this occasion also. Keeping aside the spirit of sportsmanship, he found an opportunity to attack Modi in the defeat of Team India. These leaders wrote that if Modi had not gone to the stadium, Team India would have won. Not only this, after the final the edited video of the prize distribution ceremony was also made viral. It was said that when Modi gave the World Cup trophy to Australian captain Pat Cummins, he did not even shake hands with him. Just held the trophy and kept walking. Politics regarding Modi and the World Cup had started when the news came that Modi would go to Ahmedabad to watch the final. It is election period. Voting is yet to take place in Rajasthan. Congress felt that it should not be left behind. That’s why two pictures were released first. In one, Indira Gandhi is seen standing with Kapil Dev after winning the 1983 World Cup. In the second picture, Dr. Manomahan Singh is standing with Mahendra Singh Dhoni after becoming world champion. The idea behind this was to tell that when Congress was in power, we had become champions in cricket. When Team India lost in the final, immediately some statisticians also became active on social media. Started telling that India won the first World Cup of Cricket in 1983 when Congress was in government. Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister. For the second time also when India won the World Cup in 2011, Dr. Manmohan Singh of Congress was the Prime Minister. That is, the credit for the team’s victory and the performance of the players started being given to the Congress governments and the Prime Ministers of that time. Some people brought out more figures on social media. Started comparing Congress and Modi. An attempt was made to show that Team India could not win a single ICC trophy during Modi’s rule.
Whatever was being written on social media, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said the same thing in the election meeting of Rajasthan. Said, it will be difficult to bring Modi and BJP to power. Even before Indira ji was the Prime Minister, India had won the World Cup, now it will win again, till now it was fine. There was no harm in saying this, but when the defeat happened on 19th November, many people from Congress commented that since the stadium is named after Narendra Modi, that is why the defeat happened. Uddhav Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut cleverly held Narendra Modi responsible for the defeat in the final. Who will explain to these people that Team India had defeated Pakistan in this very Narendra Modi Stadium. Then in the country there are Indira Gandhi Stadium, Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. Has Team India never lost in any of them? Congress leader Pramod Tiwari said in a public meeting that Team India won 10 matches, then who reached this match due to which it lost?
I feel that in today’s times, talking about such superstitions, calling someone a Panauti, associating victory or defeat in the sports field with someone’s name is an example of very poor level of politics. When our Chandrayaan has reached the Moon, when India has made the nuclear bomb, when the whole world is looking at India as a modern scientific India, then in such a situation, no matter who talks like this just for the sake of politics, It is not a good thing. Everyone should come together and see how the entire country is standing with our team. For the first time, despite the defeat in the final, people are standing with their team and cheering for their team. When Rohit Sharma came forward to talk to the commentator after losing the match, the entire stadium was clapping for him. Slogans of ‘Rohit, Rohit’ were heard. When Virat Kohli came on the stage to receive the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award, his face was sad, but the entire stadium was echoing with slogans of ‘Kohli, Kohli’. This is the first time I have seen so much love for a losing team. This is the sentiment of our country. Everyone should live with this feeling. What if you lose the cup? You have won millions of hearts. What if you lose a match? Won the first 10. There are some days when luck is not on your side. No matter how hard you try, you cannot succeed. Soon a day will come when luck will also show its true colors. By defeating everyone our team will become world champion. (Rajat Sharma)
Watch: ‘Aaj Ki Baat, Rajat Sharma Sath’ full episode of November 20, 2023
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