Ace cricketer Gautam Gambir is all set to make his political debut. On Monday, BJP fielded former India cricketer Gautam Gambhir from the East Delhi constituency. Gautam Gambhir who has a remarkable cricketing career is popularly known for his aggression on the field. Soon after he was given a ticket, his fans started uploading the videos of his outstanding cricketing shots thus giving him an edge over his political opponents as we all know that India is a cricket loving nation.
One user uploaded Gambhir’s world cup final knock that led India to win the world cup after 28 years. The video got over a million shares, therefore giving a clear advantage to Gambhir. Later in the day, a petitioner approached the Election Commission asking them to take down the video as it was influencing the elections in BJP’s favour.
The Election Commission in response submitted a report to the Supreme Court and claimed that the highlights of 2011 World Cup finals in which Gambhir has played an exceptional inning holds the capacity to “tilt the electoral balance”. A committee set up by the polling commission watched the entire match and submitted a report, which turns out not to be in BJP’s favour.
The committee said that the match highlights “produces a political environment where an individual acquired cult status” and showing the highlights of the match when the Model Code of Conduct is in place would favour a particular political party. The report had said the screening of the movie should not be allowed until May 12th, the date of polling in Delhi.
Currently, it is not clear whether the Election Commission is considering to ban the premiere of ‘Gadar’ on Zee Cinema – a movie that rightly shows Congress’ candidate Amisha Patel as a Pakistani and BJP’s candidate Sunny Deol in a “toxic hyper-nationalistic” role. More on this awaited.
