By Sushil Kutty
Fat-shaming is the new normal in Congress party political circles these days. Congress spokespersons use it with critical remarks regarding the cricketing performances of top Indian cricketing icons. And if you’re Malayali with almost zero cricketing knowledge you’re best at the game.
Ask Shama Mohamed, the Congress party’s spokesperson at the centre of a fat-shaming controversy involving her loose tongue. Mohamed is from Kerala and Malayalis are relatively new to setting cricketing examples. For decades, a budding Kerala cricketer was hard to spot though Kerala’s cricketing talent didn’t learn the game with coconuts for balls.
Dash that thought. Shama Mohamed’s instant notoriety springs from the vitriolic pitch she directed at India skipper Rohit Sharma, who had collected girth in the middle. Shama Mohamed lost her pert smile. She gathered her thoughts and let go at the “poor lad” who was in Dubai skippering the India side against the New Zealand side on Sunday!
Fat persons generally take their own time collecting their thoughts and Rohit Sharma continues to give more attention to the Champion’s Trophy than to somebody called “Shama Mohamed” whom he had never spoken to or exchanged pleasantries with. And because, political correctness is associated with ignoring insults to prominent people, India’s mainstream TV media chose not to give Shama Mohamed’s “fat comments” the legitimacy it cried for.
Instead, each one of the TV studios, the so-called “national television channels”, picked on Congress leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and his captaincy record, “90 election losses skippering the Congress, blah, blah and blah.” This made better television than Shama Mohamed defending her string of sentences including the one with which Mohamed staved off a senior Pakistani cricketer.
Shama Mohamed had willy-nilly become the toast of the subcontinent and the Champion’s Trophy and here was Rahul Gandhi stealing the thunder, unacceptable. But the Arnab Goswamis and the Rahul Shivshankars, the Navika Kumars, were already on the ball, speaking for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Modi government. Who are people to object and remote out the talking heads?
Silence is golden. But under Modi, idiot box noises run the country. Right then, Shama Mohamed was pitched against Rahul Gandhi with the image of Rahul doing push-ups and a leap into the Arabian Sea. Shama Mohamed hadn’t done any of these and the Modi-friendly TV anchors made news of the more newsworthy Rahul Gandhi!
Also, getting back at Shama Mohamed was best done by getting back at Rahul Gandhi, whom Shama Mohamed idolizes. It is another matter that fat-shaming Rohit Sharma kept the focus on the slim and trim Shama Mohamed. Shama should seriously put some weight on. After all, Kerala is best known for its human indices, its healthy food habits and its healthy living, right?
For example, Kerala’s top male film-stars who have made careers out of rubbishing slim-and-fit. Some of them are heavyweights in acting, winners of national and Filmfare awards. Did Shama Mohamed fat-shame any of these actors, and the dozens of other overweight Malayali celebrities?
So why Rohit Sharma? It cannot be because the Congress likes a healthy India-Pakistan contest in the middle of the pitch. This argument doesn’t carry water nor weight. Shama Mohamed isn’t being slandered for being a traitor with cries of “go back to Pakistan.”
For now, “Shama Mohamed’s remarks on Rohit Sharma’s fitness and captaincy have sparked a massive row” and the Congress spokesperson has been compelled to cheer the “Men in Blue” after their victory against Australia in the Champions Trophy semi-final. Mohamed, in fact, wished them the “very best of luck” for the March 9 finale.
“I am very, very happy today that India has won the semi-finals against Australia under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. Very happy, very very excited, and congratulations to ViratKohli for scoring 84 runs and becoming the first player to score 1000 runs in ICC knockouts. I am very excited and looking forward to the finals,” she told ANI.
To be frank, Shama Mohamed has a big complaint with the BCCI. Shama isn’t impressed with Rohit Sharma’s “unimpressive captaincy” and said as much in her opening comments on Rohit Sharma. She thinks Virat Kohli is a better buy than Rohit Sharma. She’s never heard that Sharma won five IPLs for Mumbai Indians and the T20 World Cup for India.
Shama Mohamed got all the publicity she hankered for thanks to Rohit Sharma, who must still be wondering “who’s Shama Mohamed?” Shama Mohamed and Rohit share a thick skin. Mohamed isn’t apologetic for the retarded comments and Sharma doesn’t want to know who’s Shama Mohamed?
It is a matter of research. What got into Shama Mohamed, what provoked her, why the outburst, why target Rohit Sharma? Why when India was taking on New Zealand? “Rohit Sharma is fat for a sportsman. Need to lose weight! And ofcourse the most unimpressive Captain India has ever had,” Shama Mohamed said. “What is so world class about him when compared to his predecessors like Ganguly, Tendulkar, Dravid, Dhoni, Kohli, Kapil dev, Shastri & the rest! He is a mediocre captain as well as a mediocre player who got lucky to be the Captain of India.”
Strange are the ways of Shama Mohamed. “I just spoke in a generic manner. I fail to understand how in a democracy, we don’t have the right to speak.” Shama Mohamed didn’t think she was giving the BJP ecosystem a reason to more than body-shame Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, 54 going on 55! (IPA Service)
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