Pulwama Attack, Terror Funding, and Cricket
Take immediate action at least now to stop scripted and fake cricket
Atul Kumar
It is with a sense of great pain that I communicate the following to the nation in general and present Government in particular:
At present, there is acute grief in the country over the martyrdom of 40 CRPF jawans in a recent terrorist attack in Pulwama, and a lot of clamor to avenge it. Also, a big public debate is going on whether India should now play against Pakistan or not in the upcoming Cricket World Cup.
Surprisingly a key issue leading to Pulwama attack still continues to be conveniently ignored by the government and all the authorities. That is terror funding – the lifeline of terrorism. Lakhs of crores of rupees per year earned by betting syndicates as a result of thoroughly scripted cricket matches globally – the major portion of this amount emanating from India and going from pockets of Indians – has been one of the big sources of terror funding for years. It still continues to be so, increasing every day through mushrooming T-20 leagues.
While the clamor for action/war against Pakistan rages, a very puzzling question haunts evermore. If Pakistan is an enemy country, how come we have been playing fixed cricket matches with them, even losing to them in the last Champions Trophy final in one such fixed match?
I say above with some authority on the strength of the success of my writ petition (Civil) 1163/2017 in the Supreme Court of India that had brought the above out.
The agonizing hypocrisy of the authorities is best exemplified by COA of BCCI headed by Vinod Rai announcing financial assistance to families of the martyrs from savings out of canceled opening ceremony of IPL-2019 since they themselves become primarily responsible for continuing terror funding through fixed cricket and thus having assisted in Pulwama attack.
Undoubtedly, IPL-2019 will contribute further to terror funding in a big way. Pained by the dastardly killing of innocent jawans, I once again urge our government, the political leaders, and the concerned authorities to take immediate action at least now to stop scripted and fake cricket in order to strike a body blow to terror funding and terrorism.