By celebrating Pakistan victory, some Indians have made a ‘mauka-ry’ of Indian ethos and democracy

There are reports of arrests in Uttar Pradesh of those who raised the Pakistan flag or sang the Pakistani national anthem post the T20 World Cup match. In Kashmir, students and staff of medical colleges have been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). This has been the norm post any India-Pakistan sporting event.

All India-Pakistan clashes on the sports field are tension-packed and played to full houses, as was evident in Dubai, where tickets were sold out weeks before the match. The loser faces national backlash, while the victor takes the spoils. Victory is also exploited politically.

The recent World Cup clash between India and Pakistan in Dubai, which Pakistan won decisively by 10 wickets, was just that. Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed stated, “Pakistan’s triumph against India is a victory of Islam. All Muslims throughout the world are rejoicing.” He went on to add that this was akin to winning the World Cup. He was reminded on social media that it was a cricket match, not a victory in war, which Pakistan has never achieved.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, on a visit to Saudi Arabia, stated while addressing a business forum, “If somehow we improve our relationship with India — I know after last night’s thrashing by the Pakistan team in the cricket match, it’s not a very good time to talk about improving relations with India.”

Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting, stated, “The celebrations in Kashmir after the defeat of the cricket team in India should be enough to open the eyes of Modi & Co.”

The Pakistan Army comments were more subdued. The DGISPR tweeted, “CJCSC & Services Chiefs congratulate Pakistan Cricket Team for historic win against India in ICC T20 World Cup.”

The trolling of Mohammad Shami partially projected the dark side of the Indian public. There is no doubt that the team made errors, which does occur when playing under pressure, but to blame an individual, when the whole team failed, displays an immature mindset. Within a day everything changed, and celebrities, politicians, former cricketers and the common Indian stood in support of Shami. Virat Kohli faced more fireworks in the post-match conference than during the game.

Later, it was found that comments against Shami had mostly originated from Pakistan-linked handles, exploiting the moment to enhance the religious divide within the country. New accounts were created on Instagram only to spread an ‘India is intolerant’ image. While this observation may be true, our own public’s reputation has been no better. In March 2007, Indian fans brought down walls and pillars of Dhoni’s under-construction house in Ranchi to protest India’s five-wicket rout by Bangladesh in their opening World Cup encounter.

Within India, there were reports of people celebrating Pakistan’s victory by bursting crackers. In some cases, it is difficult to dissect whether it was to celebrate Pakistan’s success or India’s defeat. In India, many view the defeat as a setback to the current political dispensation, echoed by many on social media outlets. Some celebrations in Jammu and Kashmir were aimed at displaying an anti-India stance. Interestingly, none who celebrated Pakistan’s victory would ever desire to live in Pakistan, even if invited or promised a lifelong visa.

Trolling and insulting the team post any loss is common even in Pakistan. After the defeat at the hands of India in the 2019 World Cup, Pakistan’s captain Sarfaraz Ahmed faced the nation’s ire. Shireen Mazari, Pakistan’s Human Rights Minister, tweeted, “Hate to admit it but today there was a professional well-gelled cricket team that was the Indian team and a bunch of stragglers disconnected and led by a yawning captain that passed for the Pak team.”

For the common Pakistani, the current victory was setting at rest the “mauka-mauka” advertisement released in 2015, which mocked Pakistan’s losses to India. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper caught the mood in the title to its article, ‘Pakistan makes a mauka-ry of critics’.

The Dawn newspaper summed the importance of the victory for Pakistan. It stated, “With apologies to India, Pakistan fans deserved and needed this one much more. There is a mob heading towards the national capital, there are signs indicating a civil-military rift, a ‘petrol bomb’ was recently dropped, electricity rates have gone through the roof, a gas crisis is on the horizon, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) just wouldn’t let us go, and there is trouble brewing in neighbouring Afghanistan. In the midst of all that, the win over India allows the entire country to forget the troubles of their routine life.”

The victory also pushed under the carpet the surrender of the government to the TLP, an organisation it had itself banned in April this year. It gave Pakistan politicians much needed breathing space and they exploited it.

India and Pakistan have had no sporting ties in recent times, on account of strained relations over terrorism and Kashmir. Prior to the World Cup there were calls for cancelling the match on account of the ongoing operation in Poonch, where India lost nine soldiers. Subramanian Swamy had tweeted, “Playing cricket with terrorist Pakistan, which is killing innocent Indians, is unacceptable.”

India-Pakistan rivalry exists in every sporting event, hockey and athletics included. Who can forget the incident in Bhubaneshwar where after their semi-final win over India, Pakistan players ran on the field, taking off their shirts and displaying vulgar signs at the audience. Nor can we forget the missing javelin incident between India’s golden boy of athletics Neeraj Chopra and Pakistan’s Nadeem during the Olympics this year.

This rivalry will not go away anytime soon. Accepting loss with maturity is more important. Likewise, by celebrating Pakistan’s victory, some Indians have made a ‘mauka-ry’ of their country’s ethos and democracy.

The author is a former Indian Army officer, strategic analyst and columnist. Views expressed are personal.