AAP protests in Delhi, slams BJP over approval of India-Pak cricket match after Pahalgam attack

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday staged a demonstration near the BJP office in Delhi to protest the Centre’s approval of the India-Pakistan match after the attack on civilians in Pahalgam.

Led by Delhi State President Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP’s Women’s Wing smashed televisions outside the party headquarters, sent sindoor and bangles to the Prime Minister, and urged citizens to boycott the match. During the protest, protesters were seen burning an effigy marked as ‘BJP Saarkar’ to demonstrate their anger over the government’s decision.

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Senior AAP leaders, including Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, and Atishi, called out the saffron party for fake nationalism. Atishi said playing cricket with Pakistan—a country that shelters terrorists— is “an insult to India’s martyrs.”

AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal took to X and wrote: “Playing a match with Pakistan is treason against the country, and that every Indian is deeply angry about it.”

The AAP Delhi Unit President charged that while PM Modi once claimed “hot sindoor runs through his veins” after the Pahalgam terror attack, today that fire has gone cold, with the BJP itself organising cricket with Pakistan despite the Army’s Operation Sindoor creating an opportunity to reclaim PoK before PM Modi “took a U-turn.”

Taking a jibe at the Prime Minister for his patriotic speeches, Sisodia posted on X that after the Pahalgam attack, PM Modi had proudly declared that “talks and terrorism cannot go together.” He added, “It seems that patriotism is limited only to the Prime Minister’s speeches. Now the whole country is asking: have the flames of Operation Sindoor cooled so quickly that cricket matches are being played with the same terrorists? Prime Minister, answer the people.”

Speaking to an agency, Singh criticised the Centre’s decision, “In Pahalgam, our sisters’ sindoor was snatched away. The Government of India itself said that this was carried out by terrorists from Pakistan. After that, Operation Sindoor was launched, in which our soldiers were martyred, civilians were killed, and even an ADC was martyred. How can we play cricket with the same Pakistan we are fighting against?”