BCCI - Bullying Controller of Cricket Internationally

Today, on 23rd February 2025, India beat Pakistan by 6 wickets in the ICC Men's Champion's Trophy. A tournament that features the Top 8 Men's cricket teams. A global tournament that is being hosted in Pakistan after 29 years. Cricket fans in Pakistan have been starved of watching their heroes take on the world since many years, and this is finally their chance. But wait! India and Pakistan are playing not in Pakistan but in Dubai. The Indian Government did not give permission to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to travel to Pakistan for the tournament. This decision was (finally) taken on 19th December 2024 less than 2 months before the start of the tournament. The BCCI knew that the tournament would be hosted in Pakistan since November 2021. There hasn't been any drastic deterioration in India-Pakistan relationship since then. India continues to trade with Pakistan, the Indian tennis team travelled to Pakistan to play in the Davis Cup, India's Bridge team went to Pakistan and were treated like royalty, India's External Affairs Minister himself went to Pakistan for a Shanghai Cooperation Conclave meeting. On the other side, Pakistan have been regularly sending their sports teams (hockey, football, athletics) to India. The Men's cricket team themselves came to India for the 2023 ODI World Cup where they got a wonderful welcome in Hyderabad.

Usually, in a global sporting event, if any team decides not to travel to a venue, they are either disqualified or they forfeit points. In fact, the same situation occurred in the 1996 Men's ODI World Cup which was the last global cricket tournament in Pakistan. India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan were the co-hosts. Australia and the West Indies chose not to travel to Sri Lanka citing security concerns. However, this was a different time and different BCCI. India and Pakistan in a terrific show of unity and solidarity played a friendly match against Sri Lanka to show the world that it was safe. But all these rules don't apply now to the BCCI and the International Cricket Council (ICC) does nothing to enforce them. What we get instead is a "hybrid" tournament where only India plays all its matches in Dubai, while the rest of the 7 teams play in Pakistan as well as Dubai (if they are lucky to play India). India gets to prepare a squad specifically for Dubai's slow turning pitches, which they have done by including 5 spinners. Other teams need to figure out a squad that can also apply to the flat wickets in Pakistan. Organizers need to be prepared for multiple venues not just in the group stage but also the final. Fans do not know if the final will happen in Dubai or Lahore. The "hosts" Pakistan will not get to host the final in their new Lahore stadium if India qualifies. India gets to stay put and relax in Dubai for the whole tournament while a team like New Zealand, for example, needs to travel to Karachi, Rawalpindi, Dubai and then to Lahore or Dubai based solely on India's fortunes in the tournament.

This India-specific hybrid model is not new. The same saga took place during the 2023 Men's Asia Cup. Once again, Pakistan was awarded the hosting rights in 2021 by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). A year later, Jay Shah became the president of the ACC (he is also the current ICC chairman) and said that India will not travel to Pakistan. After threatening to boycott this tournament and/or the 2023 ODI World Cup to be hosted in India, Pakistan agreed for a hybrid model where they would be the official hosts although only 4 matches would be played in Pakistan while 9 would be played in Sri Lanka. The ridiculousness did not stop there. The tournament format was jigged to have a "Super 4" even though there were only 6 teams playing. All this was done so that India and Pakistan get to play each other at least twice, if not thrice. As expected, it rained a lot in Sri Lanka and the first group stage "marquee" match was washed out. There was a good chance that Pakistan would not reach the finals, and there was a threat of rain (obviously) for the Super 4 matches too. Hence, the ACC added a reserve day only for the India v/s Pakistan Super 4 match. This was supremely unfair to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The statements by their coaches summed up the situation. 

"I haven't seen this kind of thing in another tournament, this changing rules in the middle of the tournament" - Chandika Hathurusinghe

"It's a little surprise when I first heard. But we don't organise the competition, so there's nothing much we can do about that" - Chris Silverwood

The great Ian Chappel who retired from journalism today, once said that the ICC is an event management company. The sad reality is that it does not even do that part properly. So many of the recent ICC Men's Cricket Tournaments feel like they have just two things on their mind:

1. Minimum 1 India v/s Pakistan game has to happen
2. India should go as far ahead in the tournament as possible

This change seems to have happened after the 2007 World Cup when India and Pakistan were knocked out in the group stage. After that, the 2011 and 2015 World Cups had India playing minimum 6 matches. Even this was not enough, so the 2019 and 2023 World Cups had only 10 teams in an all-play-all format, ensuring that India played a minimum of 9 matches. Of course, India and Pakistan have been in the same group in all ICC Men's World Cup since 2003. In addition, in the last few tournaments, the scheduling has "somehow" worked in India's favour so that they get the maximum rest between games, and they play a weak team in the final match of the group stage. In the 2021 T20 World Cup, they played against Namibia, in 2022 against Zimbabwe and against the Netherlands in the 2023 ODI World Cup. 

Personally, all of this leaves me with a horrible taste in my mouth. I cannot and do not want to separate the art from the artist. I still watch the Indian cricket team play whenever and wherever I can, but it is with a strange mix of emotions ranging from happiness, pride, guilt and disconnect. I yearn to watch them again like earlier with passion and zeal. But I also know that I was ignorant. Ignorant of the fact that the BCCI along with being one of the richest sporting bodies in the world is a bully. And like all bullies, I hope they get their comeuppance. Sooner, rather than later.

Mockery of Code of Conduct

On March 16, 2024, the Election Commission of India announced a surprisingly long duration of the Lok Sabha elections and with it came into force the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The MCC is a set of guidelines issued to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections. The rules range from issues related to speeches, polling day, polling booths, portfolios, the content of election manifestos, processions, and general conduct, so that free and fair elections are conducted. One of the most important points in the MCC for a diverse country like India is:

“No party or candidate shall include in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic.”

The MCC also says:

 “..Criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion shall be avoided.”

“There shall be no appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes. Mosques, Churches, Temples or other places of worship shall not be used as forum for election propaganda.”

Sadly, it is neither surprising nor unexpected that the BJP leaders and campaigners are blatantly spreading hate on the basis of religion and lies. I wrote about BJP’s numero uno campaigner’s hate and lies in this blog post. Scroll journalists Tabassum Barnagarwala and Abhik Deb did the unenvious job of going through 5 days worth of speeches by the numero uno and fact checking each and every claim. They found a plethora of lies and divisive statements.

Other ministers and campaigners of the BJP took their cue from the parivar pramukh and spread similar lies and hate. Here are just some highlights low lights:

Amit Shah said in West Bengal that Mamta Banerjee’s government is one of “mullas, madrassas and mafia”

Violating multiple points of the MCC in one speech in West Bengal, the UP chief minister, Ajay Bisht said that “Bengali Hindus participated in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement to demolish the structure of slavery”

(HindutvaWatch is an excellent resource to see the amount of hate done by Hindutvavadis. But it is extremely depressing as well. Please use discretion while going through their timeline. Kudos to them for doing this amazing documentation work!)

Union Minister Anurag Thakur (of goli maaro saalo ko fame) said in Himachal Pradesh that in Congress manifesto it is written that they plan to give your (Hindu) children's property to Muslims.

It says a lot about our political discourse and mainstream media that the BJP believes it can get away with spreading lies about what is written in the Congress manifesto when it is the easiest fact check in the world. On 1^st May, students from Galgotiya University in Noida marched to the Congress headquarters in Delhi to protest against supposed references to inheritance tax and wealth redistribution in their manifesto. Sadly, many students could not answer simple questions about their concern, motive or placards. Even more depressing and concerning were the reading skills of some of the college students.

The BJP’s Instagram account went many steps further in spreading hate and lies. They uploaded this horrible crude video building on the lies about the Congress manifesto redistributing wealth but going many steps further (and back) directly comparing it to the Muslim league. The video, which has thankfully been taken down, also says that ancient India was so prosperous that ‘each and every’ average citizen had plenty of gold and ‘invaders’ looted us and destroyed temples. It actually has this line – “If you are a non-Muslim, Congress will snatch your wealth and distribute it to Muslims”.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India (an independent, constitutional body in charge of conducting free and fair elections) seems to have adopted the original Japanese proverb – “see not, hear not, say not.” They have taken no action themselves against BJP for the blatant lies, hate speech, use of religious symbols or targeting of minorities. When the Congress party, CPI(M) and civil society activists urged them to act, they behaved as if the Prime Minister is Lord Voldemort and sent a notice to BJP President JP Nadda asking for comments on behalf of BJP's “star campaigners” instead of directly seeking explanations from the biggest “star” himself.

In related news, there is also a huge concern over the Election Commission’s voter turnout data. There was an unprecedented delay in releasing the data after the first two phases of the election. The voter turnout data for the first phase was released 11 days after  polling ended, while the second phase data was released 4 days afterwards.

It is indeed sad that the Election Commission of India is in such disarray. It has an illustrious history of conducting successful elections in the biggest democracy in the world. The first Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sukumar Sen, not only oversaw India’s first two elections, but also was the first Chief Election Commissioner of Sudan. This excellent episode on the Bharatiya Junta Podcast talks about him in the context of India’s first ever elections.

Why are the current Election Commission members acting so helpless then? The answer may lie in how they are being appointed. Last year in March, a Supreme Court Constitution Bench ruled that the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners must be done on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Chief Justice of India (CJI), the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. This would ensure an impartial selection. However, on 12^th December 2023, the BJP cleared a Bill which changed the committee to remove the CJI and instead replace him/her with a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the prime minister. Oh and it just so happens that when this Bill was cleared, 146 opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament. This again was unprecedented.

3 months after passing the new law to appoint Election Commissioners and just weeks before the biggest election in the world, Arun Goel, whose term was supposed to last till 2027, quit suddenly. No one knows the reason but there are rumours of rifts with the current CEC, Rajiv Kumar. Goel is not the only Commissioner to quit suddenly. In August 2020, Ashok Lavasa, resigned just months short of becoming the Chief Election Commissioner. He was the only member of the 3-person commission to rule that PM Modi violated the Model Code of Conduct while campaigning for the 2019 general elections. His demand that dissent notes should be recorded in the commission’s orders on model code violations was rejected with a majority vote. ‘Coincidentally,’ his wife, sister and son had all received notices from the Income Tax department.

After Arun Goel resigned suddenly, the Government of India appointed 2 new Election Commissioners just two days before the elections were announced. The ‘impartial’ committee headed by PM Modi did not give any time to the only opposition member in the committee - Congress Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. The names of shortlisted officers were not made available to him in advance despite his request. The Government sent him the names of over 200 officers just one day before on Wednesday, 13^th March. On Thursday, he was given a short list of 6 names just moments before the meeting. Then Amit Shah proposed two names and PM Modi asked him for his “opinion”. Small mercy for following process, at least for the sake of it. For what its worth, Chowdhury recorded his formal dissent and the Supreme Court heard the case due to many petitions filed challenging the validity of the law on the appointment of election commissioners. However, since the general elections were just around the corner, the Supreme Court did not want to take any actions and just “reprimanded” the government and said that they could have examined the names more slowly. Thank you, my lords! This wonderful cartoon by PenPencilDraw completely sums up the current situation:

 

 

 

Another Surat robbery

I remember reading about Shivaji Maharaj's plunder of Surat in my school history text books. Those took place in the 17th century. On April 22, 2024, another robbery happened in Surat. The BJP's candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Mukesh Dalal, was elected unopposed from Surat. The last time such an instance took place was 35 years ago. How did this happen? Here is a gist of the murky story:

Nilesh Kumbhani (Congress)

The biggest opposition for Mukesh Dalal was the Indian National Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani. He filed his nomination on April 18. He had 3 proposers (at least one is needed for recognized parties while independent candidates or smaller parties need ten). The 3 proposers were: his business partner, nephew and brother-in-law. 

On April 20, election officials summoned Kumbhani and other candidates to scrutinise their papers, a routine affair. But, Kumbhani did not show up at the scheduled time. The BJP's candidate agent, Dineshbhai Jodhani, submitted a complaint asking to investigate one of Kumbhani's proponent. Just 90 minutes after that, Kumbhani's three proponents turned up with "affidavits" claiming that their signatures on Kumbhani's form were forged. A fantastic investigation by Newslaundry found out that all these affidavits were purchased on the same day within a span of 5 minutes and all have consecutive serial numbers. All the affidavits were notarized by a BJP leader Kiran Ghoghari who also happens to be a lawyer. When Newslaundry journalists did their job questioning Jodhani, he answered a few questions and then told them, “If you ask too many questions, there will be trouble.”

Meanwhile, Kumbhani did not keep his party leadership in the loop about this grave matter. They found out through the District Magistrate's office. When the local leadership tried to call him, he kept ignoring their calls. After finally showing himself at the DM's office, he told everyone that his proponents (business partner, nephew and brother-in-law) are missing and he will keep trying to contact them. He then left around 5 pm and has been MISSING since then. The Congress has now suspended him for 6 years. They say he was either colluding with the BJP or completely careless. No prizes for guessing the answer.

Other candidates


Was Nilesh Kumbhani the only opposing candidate to Mukesh Dalal? Not at all. In fact, there was another candidate from the Congress itself - Suresh Palsada. His proposer was his nephew, who also submitted an affidavit saying his signature was forged. Of course, this affidavit was also purchased along with those from Kumbhani's proponents and notarized by the same BJP leader cum lawyer - Kiran Ghoghari. Hence, both the Congress candidates were disqualified. As an aside, Ghoghari apparently charged the Congress proponents 5 times his usual rate. They / someone paid Rs. 2500 per affidavit. I guess just making history (this was the BJP's first unopposed win) is not enough. One needs to make money too.


Is this the end? No.


There were 8 other candidates. Did their proposers also submit affidavits alleging forgery? No. There needs to be variety in murky dramas. All the remaining 8 candidates withdrew from polls on the very last day i.e. 22nd April. Scroll tried to contact all of them. Here is what some of them who could be contacted said:


Kishore Dayani (Independent): “I ran because Surat has a very bad traffic problem and I wanted to raise that issue. On Monday, a well-known person who is a supporter of the BJP met me and said that the party has plans to solve traffic problems in the city, like a metro project, so I need not run.”


Jayesh Mevada (Global Republican Party): “I wanted to change the poor state of this nation. “But if the Congress with all its might is not fighting, why should I? It is better to let our visionary Prime Minister Narendra Modi change our country.”


Ajitsinh Umat (Independent): “I was essentially fighting against the Congress ideology. Once they fell out of the race, I saw no point in contesting.”


Bharat Prajapati (Independent): “I went into depression so I withdrew.”


Ramesh Baraiya (Independent): “I am going back to my village.”


Sohel Shaikh (Log Party): “I withdrew just like that.”

The Allahbad-based Log Party is led by retired Indian Administrative Service officer Vijay Shankar Pandey. When Pandey heard the news that the Congress candidate’s nomination had been rejected, he saw it as a good opportunity to lead the charge against the BJP in Surat. He tried calling him but (shockingly) his phone was switched off. Even their lawyer couldn't reach him. As expected, Shaikh did not consult the party and his decision to withdraw was unilateral. Pandey said, “We have all been kept in the dark. This is sheer opportunism. This is the rotten state of politics in our country.”

What is surprising to me is why the BJP chose to pull off this trick in Surat of all places. They have won the last 9 general elections from Surat. In 2019 they had a vote share of 74%. Maybe they wanted to send a trial balloon and gauge the feedback? Either way, Indian politics has now successfully robbed the voters of Surat from exercising their vote in this election. In the words of the Tamil Nadu IT Minister - Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, maybe Democracy in India is already dead, and in this election, we're just in its wake.

The Secularist's Conundrum

On Monday, 7th April 2014, India will begin it's longest and according to many people the most important election since Independence. The pre-election opinion polls have confirmed the 'Modi wave' and the lotus seems to be blooming. 

There is no doubt in my mind that from the point of view of development, economics, jobs etc. BJP is the best party for India. The Congress, AAP and Third Front don't even come close. Narendra Modi's Gujrat model, track record and proven credentials as mentioned very nicely in this article cannot be doubted. Sure there are questions about health, education, inclusive growth etc. but there is no doubt regarding the development. People who have been visiting or staying in Gujrat since the last decade and dealing with its extremely efficient bureaucracy say the same things. Unlike Rahul Gandhi who is just talking and that too sparingly and Arvind Kejriwal who is only interested in activism, Narendra Modi has shown his merit time and time again. It is not easy to win 3 elections on a trot. I think that the Indian voters are quite clever and they always support development. I'm sure people of Gujrat wouldn't have voted for Modi unless there was a reason even leaving aside the polarization of votes. Even Modi haters (and there are many) need to appreciate these facts just like Modi lovers need to appreciate the fallibleness of their beloved leader. So the real and only question which remains is whether you can forgive or ignore or brush aside or neglect the incidents in Ayodhya 1992 and Godhra 2002? And that is the big conundrum faced by the secularists.

I have thought a lot about this and have gone back and forth, but I don't think I will be be able to just blank out the pogrom of 2002 and horrible riots of 1992. Recently Cobrapost released videos of a sting operation about the Babri Masjid demolition in '92. Basically, it proved what was known all along that BJP, Shiv Sena, VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders had planned the demolition and it was not a mob gone crazy as they claim. While BJP has cried foul over the timing of the sting, Pramod Muthalik is confused why BJP are denying their involvement and says the sting is completely true. Sanjay Raut has defiantly said that the fact that Shiv Sena and BJP had conspired to demolish the mosque is nothing new. Some of the details really shocked me, like the fact that there was a training cum brainwashing camp a month ago and they wanted some Hindus to die at the hands of the police so that it will prove to be a catalyst. Apparently Shiv Sena were planning to blow up the mosque using dynamites if petrol bombs and other techniques failed. More than 2000 people died in the resulting communal violence. This does not include loss of property and the tremendous blot on communal harmony. The 1993 bomb blasts were also done as a revenge to this incident.

Godhra and the resulting communal violence is another issue. It is true that the SIT appointed by the Supreme Court haven't been able to prove anything against Narendra Modi yet. But the fact remains that Modi has not shown adequate remorse nor did he take adequate action to stem the riots. It was a political move to polarize Hindu votes or worse a planned revenge. There has been a sting operation by Tehelka on this too where in people have confessed saying that the state helped them and supported them. Maya Kodnani, who was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in prison was till 2009 the Minister for Women and Child Development of Gujarat in Narendra Modi's BJP government. Whatever be the situation, the 2002 riots will be a huge blot on Modi's efficient governance.

India does not have a direct democracy so let's take Modi out of the picture. So the real question is whether you want to vote for BJP or not. My stance is that I am not willing to vote for BJP even though I think that they are the best party for India at this moment. The reason is that I cannot bring myself to vote for a party which came into prominence and power based on planned communal violence and a publicly anti-secular policy. Leaders who instigated the violence like L.K. Advani and Uma Bharti are still very much active in tihe BJP. Their ideology and hunger for power has cost thousands of innocent Indian lives and a double digit economic growth is not enough for me to forget that fact. Shiv Sena who came into prominence by beating up innocent South Indians, planned to blow up the Babri Masjid and have done everything they can to spread communal disharmony in India are the long term ally of BJP. There is no way I can vote for these kind of parties whatever be the big picture.

So what're the options while going for voting? Congress is definitely not one. Their shamefulness while dealing with scams, only populous moves and "convenient" secularism is not worth voting for. Plus, they have also actively contributed to the pogrom of Sikhs in 1984. The AAP is the biggest disappointment of the year. For me in Pune, the only option seems to be the People's Guardian Party whose candidate is Arun Bhatia. A clean and incorruptible guy who gets things done.

The reality is that Arun Bhatia won't win. I think that he will get even lesser votes than last time when many young voters voted for him and his campaign was really active. There is almost a certainty that the BJP and its present and future allies (new ones always come up after the results) will form the government. I am optimistic that the Indian media, the opposition and our leaders in and outside politics will keep the BJP in check. They might have no other option than showing inclusive growth and development to ensure that their government stays in power. So all is not lost. But in the end your vote is your choice. You have to make the choice whether you can forget the deeds of BJP in 1992 and the pogrom of 2002. If yes, go ahead with BJP. I cannot.