While the country celebrated the victory of its cricket team against its Pakistan counterpart, the opposition parties had other plans.
A video of the BCCI Secretary, Jay Shah, went viral on social media wherein he was seen refusing to hold the national flag when offered one.
Leaders from Congress and other opposition parties posted the video on their social media handles and threw criticism at the BCCI Secretary.
तिरंगे से दूरी की आदत इनकी कई पीढ़ियों पुरानी है- जाएगी कैसे? pic.twitter.com/UirAwmdWA7
— Congress (@INCIndia) August 29, 2022
“मेरे पास पापा हैं,
तिरंगा अपने पास रखो!”— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 29, 2022
Other than the grand old party, political parties like the Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) also pounced at the BCCI secretary for his actions.
हर हाथ में हो तिरंगा – हमारे संकल्प और देश के लिए निष्ठा का प्रतीक है।
इस तरीक़े से तिरंगे को झटकना ये देश के १३३ करोड़ आबादी का अपमान है। pic.twitter.com/bR0QLlNQYA— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) August 29, 2022
Jay Shah seems to have strong influence of his RSS ancestors 👇 pic.twitter.com/FmvF5RVcvI
— YSR (@ysathishreddy) August 28, 2022
Although, there are various interpretations to the BCCI personnel’s gestures, some have come forward to his defense. They argue that he was present in the Dubai stadium as the President and Member Board Representative of the ICC Cricket Committee. Therefore, as per BCCI’s Code of Ethics, he is expected to show neutrality to all stakeholders.
The BCCI ethics state, ” A Director, Committee Member or Staff Member must not promote the interests of any particular stakeholder (such as a National Cricket Federation or a group of National Cricket Federations), or of any third party (such as a governmental or political body), where doing so would conflict with his overriding duty to act in the best interests of all of the ICC’s collective membership and the sport of cricket as a whole.”
In the same stadium where the controversy emerged, India displayed a commendable performance to beat Pakistan by 5 wickets in the Asia Cup 2022 match.
