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"We shook hands during Kargil war": Shashi Tharoor slams India-Pakistan handshake row

Akshita Patel

Shashi Tharoor reacts to Asia Cup 2025 handshake controversy [Source: @Shrey__123,  @PratyushP23/X.com]Shashi Tharoor reacts to Asia Cup 2025 handshake controversy [Source: @Shrey__123,  @PratyushP23/X.com]

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has weighed in on the controversy around Indian players refusing to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts in the Asia Cup 2025. Tharoor opined that, despite the tensions between the two countries, the spirit of cricket should remain separate from politics or military conflicts.

The controversy first erupted on September 14 when the two teams clashed in a group stage clash of the Asia Cup 2025. The situation escalated in the Super Four game held on September 21.

Shashi Tharoor miffed with India’s hostility towards Pakistan

Pakistan players Sahibzada Farhan and Haris Rauf engaged in provocative behaviour. Farhan celebrated his half-century by holding his bat like a gun, while Haris Rauf made an aggressive hand gesture near the boundary rope, referencing claims about downed Indian fighter jets.

Amid this, Congress politician and sitting member of parliament Shashi Tharoor reminded fans of the 1999 World Cup, held during the Kargil War. Talking to ANI, he stated that the handshake row was unnecessary.

"I personally feel that once the decision had been made to play, if we feel so strongly about Pakistan, we should not have played. But if we are going to play them, we should play in the spirit of a game, and we should have shaken their hands," Tharoor said.

According to him, if India had decided to play in the Asia Cup, then the spirit of the game should have been upheld. Refusing to shake hands undermines sportsmanship, a value cricket has always stood for.

"We have done this before in 1999, when the Kargil War was going on. On the very day the soldiers were dying for our country, we were playing the World Cup in England against Pakistan. We were shaking their hands even then because the spirit of the game is a different spirit from what goes on between countries, between Armies and so on. That is my view," he added.

BCCI lodge complaint against Rauf, Farhan

The BCCI has officially filed a complaint with the ICC against Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan, demanding strict action against their questionable gestures on the field.

Interestingly, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had also lodged complaints earlier against Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav over comments about the Pahalgam terrorist attack.