Virat Kohli has said he will not comment irresponsibly on a subject on which he has no full knowledge. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
New Delhi:
The Citizenship Amendment Act saw massive protests in many corners of India, with some violent protests in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The Northeast, in particular, Assam witnessed some hostile protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the tension was evident as both India and Sri Lanka arrived amidst tight security at Barsapara. However, the Citizenship Amendment Act saw not many voices coming from cricketers. Aakash Chopra, Harsha Bhogle and Irfan Pathan had voiced their concerns over the police crackdown on the students protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act but there was none from the national cricketers.
When asked as to why the Indian cricket team did not make any statement on the Citizenship Amendment Act, skipper Virat Kohli was emphatic in stating that he did not want to be irresponsible. "On the issue, I do not want to be irresponsible and speak on something that has, you know, radical opinions both sides. I need to have total information, total knowledge of what it means and what is going on and then be responsible to give my opinion on it. Because you can say one thing and then someone can say another thing. So, I would not like to get involved in something that I don't have total knowledge of and it's not going to be responsible on my part to comment on it," Kohli said.
The statement from Kohli comes as a total turnaround from the previous instance when the Indian skipper remarked on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation initiative in 2016. At that time, Kohli hailed the move by terming demonetisation as the "greatest move in history of Indian politics", which met with sharp criticism from a lot of quarters, with people questioning his knowledge on the subject.
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The Citizenship Amendment Act will grant Indian nationality to people belonging to minority communities -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians -- in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12, even if they don't possess any proper document. There has been deployment of Rapid Action Force for the teams and ACA secretary Devajit Saikia has said the spectators will not even be allowed to bring along handkerchiefs and towels on the match-day as the traditional Assamese scarf was used for protests against Citizenship Amendment Act.
