In the India-Pak T20 match, Wikipedia is the loser

Update: The Wikimedia Foundation has denied receiving any summons from the Indian government over edits made to Indian fast bowler Arshdeep Singh's Wikipedia page. It was also reportedly found out that the edits to his Wikipedia page were done from Pakistan.

An India-Pakistan cricket match is always a high-stake, emotionally-charged encounter. The T20 clash between the two arch-rivals in the ongoing Asia Cup at Dubai was no exception. 

India lost its Super 4 match against Pakistan. After it was asked to bat first, India scored 181/7 in its 20 overs. Pakistan chased down the target with a ball to spare in a nail-biting finish.

As it happened, India's death bowling specialist Arshdeep Singh has been painted as the villain by a fringe set on social media after he dropped a 'dolly' off Asif Ali who played a game-changing 8-ball 16.  Incidentally, Arshdeep handled the final over of the chase and dismissed Ali lbw but failed to defend 7 runs despite some adroit bowling in the end.

India seemed to have an edge after it had dismissed Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Nawaz who had earlier taken the Indian attack to the cleaners. The wicket of Ali then would have most likely lead to an India win, but Arshdeep’s drop in the 18th over proved costly in the end.

But it is something that always happens in the game of cricket, and that is why it is called a game of uncertainties.

Outrage by fringe groups on social media 

However, post the loss, social media platforms was agog with the usual outrage and trolling as the fringe groups took their ire on the hapless Arshdeep. As the anger poured over on the platforms, the 23-year-old player was abused and labeled a Khalistan sympathiser. Some malcontent also changed his Wikipedia page to reflect the Khalistan association. His page entries, changed and subsequently restored, read that he had been selected to play for the ‘Khalistani national cricket team. The edit history of Arshdeep’s Wikipedia page showed an unregistered user replace the words 'India' with 'Khalistan' in hiss profile. An anonymous Wikipedia editor undid the changes around 15 minutes later.

Khalistan refers to the demand for a separate sovereign state for the Sikh community and the movement is separatist and militant in nature.

The issue has now snowballed into a big controversy with the India Ministry of Electronics and IT MeiTY summoning Wikipedia India’s executives. According to a report in the Economic Times, "A high-level panel, likely to be led by IT secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma will meet Wikipedia executives during the day to question them on the checks and balances of edits being allowed on the knowledge-sharing website, and how modifications such as these could be allowed." The officials are also likely to be issued a show-cause notice too, it is said.

Wikipedia is a collaborative database and anyone can add or alter content on it. Anyone is allowed to make or suggest edits, but Wikipedia follows a strict logging mechanism.

There is also a belief in India that several Pakistan-based accounts were responsible for targeting Arshdeep and Sikhs in general. A report said the media channels, journalists & influencer accounts of Pak are hitting at Arshdeep in context of Khalistan.

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