The row over Sunday’s India–Pakistan Asia Cup cricket match has spiralled into a political flashpoint in Maharashtra. After fiery remarks from Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sharad Koli, party leader Sanjay Raut added fuel to the controversy with a sharp post on X, tagging the BJP and RSS.
Raut wrote that information about restaurants and clubs screening the match should be shared publicly by 'patriotic citizens' on social media. Signing off with “Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra, Bharat Mata Ki Jai,” he warned that national honour was at stake.
Sharad Koli’s Threat to Hoteliers
Earlier, Sharad Koli, brandishing a cricket bat in a video message, threatened hotel owners and restaurateurs. He said television screens would be smashed if they aired the match. Calling the contest an “insult to the blood of martyrs,” Koli accused Pakistan of wiping the “sindoor off the foreheads of Indian mothers and sisters.”
Thackeray Targets the BJP
Uddhav Thackeray also weighed in, questioning India’s decision to face Pakistan just months after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. He accused the BJP of 'trading patriotism' and mocked the government, asking whether “Operation Sindoor has been stopped.”
“This cricket match is an insult to national sentiments,” he said, urging citizens to boycott the telecast. Thackeray stressed that protests would be held, with Sena women workers sending sindoor to the Prime Minister’s Office as a mark of defiance.
A Clash Beyond Cricket
The controversy has cast the match as more than a sporting contest. Sena leaders say it is about loyalty to the nation, drawing on Bal Thackeray’s old stand that'“blood and water cannot flow together.' With BJP and RSS now directly tagged, the row has taken the shape of a warning, a battle of patriotism played out off the pitch.
