A day after India’s historic Test win at the Gabba, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday congratulated the Indian cricket team and described the win as a “shot in the arm” during a difficult time.
In her letter to Team India, Ms. Gandhi lauded the team for its exemplary team spirit, discipline and mental toughness to fight difficult conditions like racial abuse and quarantine.
“Like millions of Indians, I am jubilant and so very proud at your magnificent, heroic and historic victory at Brisbane. Your performance, against incredible odds, has brought glory to India, and shone the international spotlight on the superb quality of Team India’s players. It has also demonstrated the discipline, the physical and mental toughness, and the exemplary team spirit that resulted in this victory — and will bring the team many other victories in future!” she said in her letter to the cricket team.
Noting that Australia had never lost a Test match for over 30 years in Brisbane, Ms. Gandhi said, “...the strength and grace with which each of you faced difficult conditions of quarantine and racial abuse, and the fighting spirit you displayed has won you the admiration and respect of the whole country and brought us joy and hope — indeed, a shot in the arm, that we sorely needed during a particularly difficult time”.
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Apart from Ms. Gandhi, several top Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor, P. Chidamabaram, Kapil Sibal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to social media platforms to celebrate the Indian team’s achievement.
True to Mr. Tharoor’s style, he trolled Australian commentators, who had predicted a clean sweep for Australia in the four-match Test series, with a rare word, ‘epicaricacy,’ that means “deriving pleasure at someone else’s misfortune.”
“ #WordofTheDay: epicaricacy! I am not the gloating kind but there’s a special pleasure in reading these comments today... When everything else has been said,what remains but “wow”?!” Mr. Tharoor tweeted on Tuesday, tagging the predictions of cricketing greats such as Ricky Ponting and Mark Waugh, among others.
