The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tore into the BJP, exposing with video evidence the ruling party’s “manufactured lies” that the Indian captain did not shake hands with his Pakistani counterpart and minister during the Asia Cup.
Sharing two videos on social media and taking BJP IT Cell in-charge Amit Malviya head-on, senior AAP leader and Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj wrote on X: “Listen carefully, factory of lies. Stop making players and actors dance to your cheap script. The Central Government betrayed the 26 widows of Pahalgam by playing a match with Pakistan, while you and your lying ministers misled the nation.”
“Stop the pirated CD shops, stop the petty act of editing other people’s videos and tell Jay Shah that the India–Pakistan match generated earnings between ₹490 crore and ₹630 crore. If that money were distributed among the families of the Pahalgam victims, each family would get between ₹19 crore and ₹25 crore. Close all the courts, and if someone’s family member gets killed, don’t file cases against the murderers — instead, play kho-kho with the murderers,” concluded the post.
During the interaction with the media, Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “At the start of the Asia Cup the Indian captain posed for a photograph holding the cup with Pakistani player Mohsin Naqvi and shook hands with him. When the BJP felt that protests were breaking out across the country against the match, their script changed. PM Narendra Modi remained silent during the first two matches so that the propaganda machinery could be activated. Later the machinery claimed that no handshake took place after the victory. The AAPthen released video footage to show that while there was no handshake on the press-conference stage, as the Indian captain was stepping down from the stage he did in fact shake hands with the Pakistani captain.”
The AAP Delhi unit chief asserted, “If everything is being done to fool the public, then we ordinary people cannot compete with the propaganda machinery. But by looking at the earlier videos the public can judge for itself what happened before the staged sequence and what happened afterwards.”
Saurabh Bharadwaj recalled his earlier challenge and said, “I asked the BCCI and the ICC that the revenue earned from broadcasting rights and advertisements should be given to the 26 victim families whose members were killed by Pakistani terrorists. When I asked on ‘Grok’ I found the BCCI’s revenue to be about ₹690 crore. If that amount were given to the widows and children of those whose fathers were killed by Pakistani terrorists, each family could receive between ₹25 crore and ₹30 crore. The players’ fees will not amount to much; people could collect more than that by donation.”
Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “Pakistani terrorists murdered 26 innocent Indian tourists in Pahalgam. On one hand, Sonam Wangchuk is called a traitor for going to Pakistan for an environmental conference, while on the other hand the Prime Minister congratulates the same country’s team for playing cricket. I ask whether Jay Shah — the ICC chairman and son of Union Home Minister Amit Shah — will consider giving this revenue to the victims?”
Saurabh Bharadwaj asserted, “The widows whose sindoor was wiped away, the children who lost their fathers — will they be satisfied that by playing cricket matches with the killers, and by wins and losses, justice is done? If that were so, the Israel–Gaza problem would be solved by holding a cricket match between them, or the Russia–Ukraine conflict would end with a football match. It does not work like that.”
