Virat Kohli spoke on Shahid Afridi’s tweets on the Kashmir issue.
A day after Gautam Gambhir slammed Shahid Afridi, who called on the United Nations to take ‘action against India for people’s plight in Kashmir’, Virat Kohli expressed his view on the issue and said that even though he does not have complete knowledge, his priority stays with his nation. Sachin Tendulkar too quipped and said “India can very well manage its internal affairs”.
Talking to media on Wednesday, Kohli said, “As an Indian you want to express what is best for your nation & my interests are always for the benefit of our nation. If anything opposes it, I would never support it for sure.”
“But having said that, it’s a very personal choice for someone to comment about certain issues. Unless I have total knowledge of the issues and the intricacies of it I don’t engage in it but definitely, your priority stays with your nation.”
“It is obvious that we have capable people to manage our country, run our country. No outsider needs to tell us what we need to do,” said Tendulkar at an event in Mumbai.
Meanwhile, when Kapil Dev was asked for his opinion on Afridi’s tweet, he said, “Who is he? Why are we giving importance to him? We should not be giving importance to certain people.”
Reacting to Monday’s anti-terror operation in Kashmir where 13 militants were killed, Afridi had tweeted, “Appalling and worrisome situation ongoing in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. Innocents being shot down by oppressive regime to clamp voice of self determination & independence. Wonder where is the @UN & other int bodies & why aren’t they making efforts to stop this bloodshed?”. Incidentally, in the past, Afridi had spoken about people from Kashmir while captaining Pakistan in World T20.
Appalling and worrisome situation ongoing in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.Innocents being shot down by oppressive regime to clamp voice of self determination & independence. Wonder where is the @UN & other int bodies & why aren’t they making efforts to stop this bloodshed?
— Shahid Afridi (@SAfridiOfficial) 3 April 2018
Kashmir is an integral part of India and will remain so always. Kashmir is the pious land where my forefathers were born. I hope @SAfridiOfficial bhai asks Pakistan Army to stop terrorism and proxy war in our Kashmir. We want peace, not bloodshed and violence. 🙏
— Suresh Raina (@ImRaina) 4 April 2018
Gambhir had earlier lashed out at Afridi saying, “Afridi is only looking for UN which in his retarded dictionary means “UNDER NINTEEN” his age bracket.”
Later, Mohammed Kaif also joined in the criticism and said Pakistan players wouldn’t have commented had they been playing in the cash-rich Indian Premier League. He tweeted, “‘Paisa Bolta Hai’. Can’t imagine Afridi making these comments if Pakistani players were still playing in the IPL. Rather, what’s needed to be condemned foremost is the reason because of which Pakistani players are not allowed to play in the IPL – Infiltration from Pakistani terrorists and Pakistan’s support to separatists. We wish peace and love but peace is a two way street.”