Sports has an uncanny way of taking you to the euphoric of highs and at the same time plummeting you to the lowest of lows – yesterday’s sporting Sunday, being a case in point. While Liverpool thrashed Manchester United 5-0 at the Theatre of Dreams i.e Old Trafford, the Indian fans were crestfallen after Pakistan inflicted 10-wicket hiding upon the Indian cricket team in Dubai, ending the latter’s invincible record in World Cup’s against the cross-border Neighbours.  

With the Indian cricket team losing to Pakistan’s team on Sunday in the ICC T20 World Cup match, many Indians were upset by India’s loss, their hearts were shattered. However, after the match a back-and-forth broke out in some regions among groups who were allegedly celebrating Pakistan’s victory.

Allegedly, many people in India celebrated Pakistan's victory. This didn't sit well with former Indian Cricketer Virender Sehwag, who lashed out on those celebrating in India by bursting crackers.

He wrote on Twitter, "Firecrackers are banned during Diwali but yesterday in parts of India there were firecrackers to celebrate Pakistan ‘s victory. Achha they must have been celebrating victory of cricket. Toh , what’s the harm in fireworks on Diwali. Hypocrisy kyun ,Saara gyaan tab hi yaad aata hai."

Congress national media coordinator Radhika Khera mocked Indians while celebrating Pakistan’s victory against India in the T20 World Cup. Pakistan beat India by 10 wickets while chasing a target of 152. Radhika Khera was overjoyed with the victory and appeared to interpret it as a defeat for ‘Bhakts’ and not for India as a country.

In her first tweet, the Congress national media coordinator said, “What Bhakts? How’s the taste? You have managed to humiliate yourselves?”

In her next tweet, Radhika Khera targeted ‘stupid Bhakts’ and “Malviya’s 2 rupees trolls”. She was presumably referring to Amit Malviya, the IT Cell head of the BJP.

When a fellow Congress party member reminder her that the Indian team that lost to Pakistan did not belong to ‘Bhakts’ alone, the Congress national media coordinator mocked him saying that someone who appears on Times Now was giving her advise.

Mehbooba Mufti defends Indian soil celebration of Pakistan’s victory 

Defending groups who were celebrating Pakistan's win, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti asked why people are agitated with Pakistan's victory being celebrated. 

In a tweet, she wrote that Kashmiris were allegedly being threatened and slogans calling them traitors -- “Desh ke gaddaron ko goli maaro..’ etc, are being raised. She went on to question people as to why they were asserting anger against the victory of a neighbouring country. 

The PDP chief who has been critical of the Centre’s move of scrapping Article 370 and 35A and has frequently batted for talks with Pakistan, scornfully wrote that Kashmiris haven’t forgotten how people celebrated by distributing sweets when Article 370 was abrogated and Kashmir was stripped of its special status. Mufti indirectly compared India’s cricket loss to the eviction of the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir and how the now Union Territory was 'dismembered', she further alleged that celebrating India’s loss should not be condemned as Kashmiris have not forgotten how people celebrated at the loss of people of Kashmir when they suffered.

Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid considers this win as 'Victory of Islam'

Pakistan Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid has described his country's win against India in World T20 match played in Dubai on Sunday as 'victory of Islam'. Rashid, who is known from making bizarre statements,  said Muslims across the world, including India, were supporting Pakistan during the match. 

"For Pakistan, today's India-Pakistan match was the final," the Pakistani minister is heard saying in a video uploaded on his personal Twitter handle. 

The Pakistani win comes at a time when the diplomatic relations between the two countries are at a low.

India has frozen bilateral cricket ties with Pakistan ever since the Mumbai terror attacks in which hundreds lost their lives.

NDTV dubious reporting

Also with the Pakistan's win some Kashmiri students at the Bhai Gurdas Institute of Engineering and Technology in Sangrur, Punjab were found celebrating Pakistan’s victory. As per reports, some of them were later thrashed by students from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. NDTV, like many other news outlets, reported the same but with essential details missing.

The news organisation conveniently avoided mentioning the underlying cause of the students’ brawl. The archived version of the NDTV report can be viewed here.

The headline of the NDTV report published on October 25 read: “Kashmiri Students Allegedly Attacked At Punjab College After India vs Pak”.

NDTV report published on October 25

The media house began its report by saying: “Several Kashmiri students at an engineering college in Punjab’s Sangrur alleged that they were assaulted late last night moments after India lost its opening T20 World Cup match against Pakistan.”

In the subsequent paragraphs, NDTV mentions the version of a Kashmiri student, and writes about videos showing broken chairs, upturned beds in the hostel rooms of the Kashmiri students and also the hits taken on their bodies. The report read: We were watching the match here. UP waale barged in. We came here to study. We are also Indian. You can see what was done to us. Are we not Indians? So what does Modi say?” one of the Kashmiri students said, while showing around the damage done to a room.

Excerpt from the report published by NDTV on October 25

The report also mentioned how the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned the incident and appealed to Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi to look into the matter and reassure Kashmiri students.

Excerpt from the report published by NDTV on October 25

The NDTV report has almost all the details pertaining to the brawl at the Bhai Gurdas Institute of Engineering and Technology in Sangrur, Punjab, except the statement by Punjab police which confirmed that the Kashmiri students had, during the match, cheered for Pakistan, which led to the scuffle.

Police had revealed that the Kashmiri students chanted Pakistan Zindabad following the team’s victory over India in a T20 World Cup match. OpIndia had reported the same.

Indian Express also quoted a senior police official from Sangrur as saying, “There are about 90 Kashmiri students and around 30 students from UP and Bihar in the college. Kashmiri students stay in 2 wings of the hostel. While the match was on, the students cheered when Pakistan was hitting runs. They also raised azadi slogans.”

“After match ended, students from UP and Bihar went inside the rooms of Kashmiri students and had a scuffle with them. Later, the Kashmiri students also had a scuffle with the students from UP and Bihar. The police and college authorities pacified things overnight,” the police official added.

A report by Times Now also mentioned that while talking to the media, Punjab Police revealed that the incident took place after some slogans were raised after the match on Sunday night.

The NDTV report, however, conveniently skipped the Punjab police’s statement and in what appears to be an obvious attempt to insinuate that Kashmiri students were assaulted because India lost to Pakistan and hence the anger was directed towards them.

Team India Face The Kiwi Challenge Ahead

The India National Cricket Team will now play against the New Zealand Cricket Team in their next group fixture of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021. The game will take place on October 31 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The Men in Blue will have to win their next game in order to keep fighting for a top-four spot.