The Opposition parties on Saturday criticised the Union government and the Board of Control for Cricket in India for permitting the Indian cricket team to play a match against Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup after the Pahalgam terror attack.

The 17th edition of the tournament, which began on September 9 and will end on September 28, sees India playing Pakistan on Sunday in Dubai.

The match comes months after tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

Ahead of the India-Pakistan match, Congress MP Imraan Masood said that the Unions government does not “care about the fact that it’s only been a few days since our sisters’ ‘sindoor’ has been wiped off”, ANI reported.

The MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur said the game was a “business” and the rights to broadcast it were sold at very high prices.

Masood said that the Union government should be “ashamed that they do not have enough morality left in them that earlier they were saying that blood and water will not flow together, and now you are making them play cricket together”.

The Congress MP was referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeated remarks that “blood and water won’t flow together”. Modi was referring to the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam attack.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said that “blood and water cannot flow together” to Pakistan but “clearly blood and cricket” can. “Especially when [Union Home Minister] Amit Shah’s ‘merit-only’ son’s fortunes depend on it,” the Krishnanagar MP said on social media. “May the best team win.”

The home minister’s son, Jay Shah, is the chairperson of the International Cricket Council, which is the global governing body of cricket. He was formerly the BCCI secretary, the country’s governing body for the sport.

Manoj Tiwary, who is Moitra’s party colleague and West Bengal’s sports minister, said that he was boycotting the India-Pakistan match as well as the Asia Cup, ANI reported.

“It needs to be understood that this is just a sport; this is not life,” the former cricketer said. “We are comparing human lives to sports; this should never be done…Only the families of those who die in the line of duty while defending the nation and innocent civilians who are killed in terrorist attacks can understand this. So, I feel this should not have happened…”

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi also referred to the prime minister’s remarks that “blood and water cannot flow together”, asking if financial gains from a cricket match outweighed the lives of the 26 persons killed in the terror attack, the Hindustan Times reported.

“We ask the prime minister, when you said that blood and water cannot flow together, dialogue and terrorism cannot happen together, then how much money will the BCCI get from one cricket match, Rs 2000 crore, Rs 3000 crore?” the newspaper quoted Owaisi as saying.

“Is the value of money more than the lives of our 26 citizens? This is what the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] should tell,” he said. “We stood with those 26 citizens yesterday as well, we stand with them today, and we will stand with them tomorrow as well.”

The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday said that the entire country was ashamed.

“For the Modi government, the business of Home Minister Amit Shah’s son is more important than the honor of the country,” it said on social media.

Party president and former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also said that playing a match with Pakistan was “treason” against the country. “Every Indian is extremely angry about this,” he added.

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) chief Uddhav Thackeray urged to citizens to boycott the match, the Hindustan Times reported. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, he said that India should not maintain any relations with Pakistan “till the time terror does not stop”.

“This cricket match is an insult to national sentiments,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief said. “Should we be playing cricket with Pakistan while our soldiers sacrifice their lives on the borders?”

Uddhav Thackeray added that the women workers in his party would send vermilion (sindoor) to the prime minister’s office to mark their protest against the conduct of the match.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Sunday said that the match can be boycotted even even now.

“The BCCI can still show India that it belongs to India, and not to greed of money,” he said on social media. “The BCCI can still prove that it isn’t anti-national…Those playing today on the field, must realise that they are playing against a country from where terrorists came into ours, massacred innocent lives.”

The Shiv Sena (UBT) leader added: “Today, we miss a Union Government that would have strongly come down on such anti- national acts. Sadly, we see BJP having changed its ideology and definition of patriotism.”

In May, the Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and eight defence personnel were killed in the shelling.

India and Pakistan on May 10 reached an “understanding” to halt firing following the four-day conflict.

BCCI response

Responding to the criticism, BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia on Sunday told the Hindustan Times that the country had to play against Pakistan in the Asia Cup as it was a multilateral event.

“It is just like an Olympic, any FIFA tournament, AFC tournament, or International Athletics Tournament,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “…If we boycott this [Asia Cup] tournament, that will bring a lot of negativity for all our future endeavours of hosting any multinational tournament in the country.”

Saikia said that India could have said that it would not play against any “hostile” country if it had been a bilateral tournament. “And so far as Pakistan is concerned, we are not playing any bilateral tournament since 2012-13 onwards,” he added.

Saikia added that that the BCCI cannot take the risk of jeopardising players’ careers.

Anurag Thakur, BJP MP and former BCCI president, also said that it was compulsory for India to play in the Asia Cup as it was a multilateral tournament.

“If we do not take part, we will be eliminated from the tournament as the opposition will get the points,” he told reporters. “But we do not play bilateral tournaments with Pakistan, and we will not play with them until they stop hurting us with the terrorism that flourishes there.”

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