India’s Champion’s Trophy celebrations: BJP leaders, others single out police action in Telangana

by Prantik Ali

On 9 March, the Indian men’s cricket team lifted the ICC Champions Trophy after 12 years, defeating New Zealand in the finals. Following the win, large crowds gathered on the streets across India to celebrate.

Videos of the celebrations, allegedly from Telangana, have gone viral on social media. These videos show celebrations being curbed, with police even resorting to violence to disperse crowds. Since Telangana is a Congress-ruled state, many social media users alleged that the action was reflective of the party’s opposition to celebrating India’s achievements. These users, many of who identify with the Right in their social media bios, have clubbed the Congress with ‘Pakistan’.

The videos of the celebrations and police action in Telangana were shared on X by BJP leader G Kishan Reddy, Union minister for coal and mines and an MP from Secundrabad. He said that it was shameful that the Congress government in Telangana wouldn’t allow celebrations. At the time of this article being written, his post accumulated over 5.3 lakh views. (Archive)

BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya shared the video with similar allegations. His caption also suggested that the Congress government in Telangana was against the idea of citizens celebrating their country’s win. (Archive)

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla also shared the videos and claimed that barring ‘two entities,’ all of India was celebrating the Indian team’s Champions Trophy win. He added that the opposing entities were Pakistan and “Shama Mohd’s Congress”. (Archive)

On March 2, Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed stoked a major controversy. In a now-deleted post on X, she called Rohit Sharma, the captain of the Indian Men’s Cricket team, “fat for a sportsman” and “the most unimpressive captain”. The Congress leader came under fire for her remarks and the party faced much criticism for insulting players representing the country.

Raushan Sinha (@MrSinha_), who calls himself a Hindu rights activist, also took to X to share a video that showed the police brandishing sticks and batons to disperse the crowd. He amplified the allegation that the Congress government in Telangana had unleashed police force on people celebrating the country’s win. The user insinuated that this was done probably because the party was upset about Pakistan not winning the trophy. The post also saw major traction, racking up more than 4 lakh views. (Archive) 

X users @MeghUpdates and @VlKAS_PR0NAM0, too, posted the viral videos with similar claims. The former asked why the Congress government was stopping the celebrations while the latter wondered, “Are we in India or Pakistan?” (Archive 1, 2)

Needless Political Angle?

While looking into these claims, Alt News found that police interventions in restraining disorderly celebrations were not exclusive to Telangana. Following the Indian team’s Champions Trophy win, people gathered in masses to celebrate and police forces were also deployed in other locations to disperse crowds that were getting uncontrollable.

On March 9, news agency ANI shared videos of police doing this in Maharashtra’s Nagpur.

Another video, also from Nagpur, shows a man being detained for unruly behaviour amid a chaotic scene involving thousands of people.

Another video, from Pune, shows a group of policemen hitting a couple of men with batons. A policeman was later cited by The Free Press Journal as saying that they took aside a man from the gathering for misbehaving under the influence of alcohol.

Note that a BJP-led alliance is in power in Maharashtra with Devendra Fadnavis as chief minister. So, police intervention in crowd management was possibly unrelated to party ideology in this case.

Similarly, Alt News came across news reports of police controlling unruly crowds in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur as well. (Link 1, 2) Violence also broke out In Madhya Pradesh, requiring the police to step in. In Gandhinagar, Gujarat, 11 persons were detained after a late-night motorbike rally celebrating India’s win turned unruly and led to violence.

Police Action in Telangana Unusual?

To understand the situation in Telangana, we went through several X posts that led us to videos shared by journalist Surya Reddy, who primarily covers Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. These indicate that police intervened primarily because crowds were swelling up and blocking roads.

On X, Reddy posted several videos that showed massive crowds had gathered to celebrate the Champions Trophy win at several locations in Hyderabad. For instance, here’s one post on crowds gathered in the vicinity of the Telangana Secretariat in the spirit of jubilation, waving the Indian flag and bursting firecrackers in celebration:

Another neighbourhood, Dilsukhnagar, saw a massive wave of people. This resulted in a traffic jam as crowds blocked the highway, hindering travellers and pedestrians from accessing the metro station. Some videos showed women and children visibly flustered and intimidated by the mob.

Another post from the journalist details how the National Highway-65 was blocked by people revelling in celebrations and blocking an ambulance as a result. The crowds also ended up intimidating women and children on the streets and the misdemeanour compelled the police to use mild force to bring the situation under control. The post’s caption also clarifies that there was no political angle to police intervention as alleged by BJP leaders.

Also, the X account of Saroor Nagar Police Station had responded to BJP minister G Kishan Reddy’s X post on March 10. They said that crowds had gathered in large numbers near the localities of Kothapet and Dilsukhnagar. In another post responding to Reddy, the police said that the sudden gathering of so many people left the highway blocked, resulting in traffic congestion.

Videos shared by the police showed crowds on National Highway 65 blocking traffic.

The video in the X post below shows the ambulance, which was also mentioned in Reddy’s post. The caption said that the police had to disperse the crowd to allow safe passage of the critically ill patient.

So, claims that the Congress in Telangana prevented Indians from celebrating their achievements by calling for police action while crowds celebrated the Champions Trophy win are not true.

Police action is common in instances of mass gatherings and cops followed a similar course of action in Maharashtra too, where a BJP leader is the CM. Posts by the journalist also make it amply clear that unruly crowds were holding up traffic on the highway and creating issues for pedestrians.

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