The Congress spokesperson, Shama Mohamed, who previously ridiculed Virat Kohli for the statement that he “plays a British game,” continued to draw sharp reactions online after calling Indian captain Rohit Sharma “fat” and “unimpressive”.
Mohamed in November 2018 blasted him over an instance when Kohli told a fan “if you like foreign batsmen, you don’t belong in India” while expressing that he prefers English and Australian batsmen.
“Virat Kohli plays a British invented game, makes crores from endorsing from foreign brands, gets married in Italy, names Herschelle Gibbs his favorite cricketer and Angelique Kerber the best tennis player, but tells those who adore foreign batsmen to leave India,” Mohamed had posted in November 2018.
Virat had offered a response to the comment, which included a suggestion to “leave India” since they enjoyed the batting of English and Australian batsmen better than that of Indian cricketer Kohli.
Virat said, “I think you should not be living in India, go and live somewhere else. Why are you living in our country and loving other countries?”
“I don’t mind you not liking me, but I don’t think you should live in our country and like other things,” he added, stressing, “Get your priorities right.”
First Virat Kohli, now Rohit Sharma– cricket fans feel the Congress spokesperson has a problem against every great Indian batsman.
“She hates Rohit, She hates Kohli. Why does Congress hate Indians and love Pakistan?” One social media user questioned.
Another questioned, “Are you so against India and anti-Indians? Is disrespecting your own countrymen, and so on, the only aim in your life?”
“You basically want fame from them [Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli],” said yet another user from social media.
In a now-deleted post on X, she said, “Rohit Sharma is fat for a sportsman! Has to lose weight! And of course, the most unimpressive Captain India has ever had!”
Bulwark to her criticism, Mohamed quipped comparisons with past Indian captains defending her reasoning; “Didn’t he move KL Rahul to bat at number 3 at the MCG Test & put himself at number 1 which backfired totally! Wasn’t that selfish on his part? Because of that, Shubman Gill was out of the XI.”
“Didn’t we lose in the last World Cup which took place in Ahmedabad? So I had made a comparison with our previous captains,” said the Congress spokesperson.
She continued her tirade against Rohit Sharma, labeling him a “mediocre player” and “mediocre captain.” She argued, “What is so world-class about him when compared to his predecessors Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Dhoni, Kohli, Kapil Dev, Shastri, and the rest! He is a mediocre captain, as well as a mediocre player who just happened to be lucky enough to get the Captaincy of India.”
“It was just a generic tweet about the fitness of a sportsperson. It is not body shaming. It is about the fitness of a sportsperson. I always believe a sports person has to be fit. So, I felt he is a bit overweight, so I tweeted on that. I am being attacked for no reason,” Mohamed told ANI.
Continue reading in this fashion: “When I put him in comparison with other captains, such as Dhoni for that matter, Ganguly, Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev, and Virat, I laid up a statement.”
In the next breath, she stated, “It [India] is a democracy. I have the right,” very poignantly asking, “What is wrong in saying that?”
The Congress leader defended herself thus, “I made a comment in general, but I didn’t realize that in a democracy, we cannot talk like this.”
