'Khela Hobe' Football Match Cancelled in Gujarat, TMC Says Decision Made ‘Under Political Pressure’

The much-anticipated ‘Khela Hobe’ event that was supposed to take place in Godhra in Gujarat on August 16 was cancelled, a local Trinamool Congress leader said on Sunday. Jitendra Khadayata, TMC leader in the state, told News 18, “Yesterday, the school principal gave me this letter stating we can do the match, the police were also ok. Today when we went to the thana to ask for security, another letter came in my WhatsApp, which states that the permission has been cancelled. I don’t understand, this permission was given yesterday and today it got cancelled. This has been done under political pressure, they are scared.”

The match was supposed to take place between Netaji 11 and Bhagath Singh 11 teams on August 16 under ‘Khela Hobe’, the slogan popularised by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee during the assembly elections this year. It has been written in the letter that the ‘Khela Hobe’ event was being cancelled in Gujarat due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said, “Even after the assurance given by the local activists of AITC in Godhra that Covid guidelines shall be followed and accordingly permission was granted it is not understood as to what prompted the “higher authorities of the school “to cancel the permission. Have they been cajoled by the ‘higher authorities in the state administration’ at the dictates of BJP satraps? Do they know that a football match is played 11 a side with 1 referee and 2 linesmen? At best, there would have been 40-50 persons altogether during the match. BJP, RSS often refer to Swami Vivekananda. But they do not know that Vivekananda was strongly in favour of football and always encouraged the youth to play it…”

The TMC has been using ‘Khela Hobe’ to pitch Mamata Banerjee as national leader and challenge BJP in the 2024 General Elections. But this seems to have fallen flat as the event got cancelled at the last moment in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, which is slated to go to polls next year.

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