The India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh replied in his style to a question raised by the famous IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt about the lack of Muslim representation in the current Indian squad.
Mohammad Siraj was recently added to the T20 squad for the New Zealand series for his brilliant stint in the previous domestic season.
Bhatt made into the news for standing strong against power among a handful of few and filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court of India against former Chief Minister of Gujarat and currently the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi for his role in 2002 Gujarat riots.
Bhatt asserted that he had attended a meeting, where Modi, the then Chief Minister asked top police officials to let the Hindu mob emit their anger against the Muslim population.
From his official Twitter handle, Bhatt posted,
“Kya iss samay bharatiya cricket team me koi bhi Muslim khiladi hai (Is there any Muslim cricketer in the Indian cricket team at present?).”
At a time when the country is being polarised on a religious basis, and every day there is news of riots between the supporters of both the religion this tweet could have sparked a new controversy.
क्या इस समय भारतीय क्रिकेट टीम में कोई मुस्लिम खिलाड़ी है ?
आज़ादी से आज तक ऐसा कितनी बार हुआ कि भारत की क्रिकेट… https://t.co/Nb6ufi71qX
— Sanjiv Bhatt (IPS) (@sanjivbhatt) October 22, 2017
However, the Turbantor was quick to shut down any form of controversy with his reply. The cricketer from Punjab said a cricketer should not judge on his religion or race, as everybody is part of India. He replied,
“Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isayi, aapas me hai bhai. Cricket team me khelne wala har khiladi Hindustani hai uski jaat ya rang ki baat nahi hone chahiye. Jay Bharat. (Every cricketer playing in the national cricket team is an Indian. Their identity should not be judged based on religion, caste, or race.).”
Harbhajan, who is otherwise very aggressive showed his maturity in handling the issue without stirring a new controversy.
Plz let me know if I can be a help to this baby in any manner.. let me pay for her treatment.. plz provide me her details??? https://t.co/EPWazVyoGk
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) October 23, 2017
Harbhajan Singh was an important member of the Indian squad playing 103 Tests and 236 One-Day Internationals for the country. He became the first Indian cricketer to take a hattrick in Test cricket when he rattled the Australian innings in Kolkata picking up 13 wickets in that match following it up with 15 wickets haul in the next game in Chennai in 2001. He eventually took 32 wickets in three games in that series.