Fans of Virat Kohli are targeting a Twitter user and his 7 year old son because the user disagreed with the Indian captain’s comments on the Mohammad Shami controversy. It has been well documented that the religious abuses towards Shami came from extremely dubious accounts that were created very recently and some that had their origins in Pakistan. It is believed that the entire objective of it was to defame India.
Thus, when Virat Kohli validated the campaign to defame India through his comments at the press conference, Twitter user Gappistan Radio lashed out at him for the same. The comment, borne out of obvious frustration with Kohli’s antics even before his comments on Saturday, attracted a torrent of abuse from the cricketer’s fans. It is pertinent to note that even before Saturday, Kohli had come under criticism for attempting to preach sermons during Diwali.
The ardent fan of Indian Cricket, anguished and heartbroken over Kohli’s comments, lamented, “Kohli condemning abuse of Shami after it had been shown that no Indian abused Shami and it was a Pakistan project, this Indian team can f*ck of (sic) to be honest…. Hope Kane Williamson ends this painful tournament tomorrow…”
As is obvious, it was a comment made in the heat of the moment. But that is not how Kohli’s fans saw it. They unleashed a series of outrageous abuses which soon escalated into threats against the user’s 7 year old son.
Gappistan Radio shared a screenshot of comments made on Instagram on the photo of his 7 year old son. The comments contained unspeakable abuses from a fan of Virat Kohli, directed at the child himself.
Gappistan Radio also said that a fan of the Indian cricketer was also sending him photos of his son, which came across as a not-so-subtle threat.
The Twitter user said that he had to disable his account on Instagram due to the abuses he was receiving from fans of Virat Kohli.
Gappistan Radio said that he was leaving Twitter because of the targeted attacks against him and his son. “I can tolerate everything but not attacks on my son,” he said.
Virat Kohli speaks up on Mohammad Shami controversy
Earlier, Virat Kohli had said, “To me attacking someone over their religion is the most, I would say, pathetic thing that a human being can do. Everyone has the right to voice their opinion and what they feel about certain situations, but I personally have never ever even thought of discriminating [against] anyone over their religion. That is a very sacred and personal thing to every human being and that should be left there.”
He had said further, “They have no understanding of the fact that someone like Mohammed Shami has won India ‘n’ number of matches in the last few years and he’s been our primary bowler with Jasprit Bumrah when it comes to making an impact in games in Test cricket. I mean, if people can overlook that and his passion for the country, I honestly don’t even want to waste one minute of my life to give any attention to those people. Neither does Shami and neither does anyone else in the team. We stand by him fully. We are backing him 200 percent, and all those who have attacked him can come with more force if they want to: our brotherhood, our friendship within the team, nothing can be shaken.”
About social media critics, Kohli stated, “There’s a good reason why we are playing on the field and not some bunch of spineless people on social media that have no courage to actually speak to any individual in person.” While the Indian captain did not specifically mention that the section of users he was referring to are Indians, his comments leave little room for doubt.
People on social media were angry over the fact that Kohli ignored multiple reports in the media that established that the campaign against Mohammad Shami was led by Pakistanis and instead, validated the campaign to malign India.
