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Who is Dr Shama Mohamed, Congress spokesperson who called Rohit Sharma 'fat'?
Congress spokesperson Dr Shama Mohamed faced backlash after calling Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma 'fat' and 'unfit' on social media.
Congress spokesperson Dr Shama Mohamed stirred a controversy on Monday after she called the captain of the Indian cricket team Rohit Sharma “fat” and “unfit” through social media posts.
In a now-deleted post on X, Shama Mohamed said that Rohit Sharma was “fat for a captain” and went on to call him one of India’s most "unimpressive" captains, a stance for which her party schooled her and asked her to take down the post.
Shama Mohamed was also called out by the party’s political rival Bharatiya Janata Party, who in return questioned Rahul Gandhi’s captaincy under whom the Congress has lost several elections.
Who is Dr Shama Mohamed?
Dr Shama Mohamed is the national spokesperson for the Indian National Congress. However, apart from her political career, she is also a dentist and has worked as a journalist as well.
After completing her primary education from an Indian school in Kuwait, Shama completed her studies as Bachelor of Dental Surgeon from Yenepoya Dental College in Mangaluru from 1992-1997, after which, she practiced dentistry for several years before turning to journalism.
Shama Mohamed worked as a journalist with media organisations such as Zee News before starting her political stint with the Indian National Congress. She was appointed as one of the national media panelists of Congress in 2018 and went on to become the party’s national spokesperson.
She is an active political figure in the Congress party’s cadre, appearing at several events and furthering the party’s narratives through various media and social media platforms.
Her controversial remarks
Shama Mohamed made a social media post calling the Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma “fat” and suggesting he needs to lose weight. In a post that she has now deleted on her party’s orders, she said, “Rohit Sharma is fat for a sportsman! Need to lose weight! And of course the most unimpressive Captain India has ever had!”
In another post, she compared Sharma to former captains of the Indian cricket team and called him a “mediocre” player and captain. “What is so world-class about him when compared to his predecessors? He is a mediocre captain as well as a mediocre player who got lucky to be the captain of India,” she said.
Her comments not only offended the fans of the cricket star but also got her party embroiled in a huge political controversy. BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla reacted to her statement and took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi. “Those who have lost 90 elections under captaincy of Rahul Gandhi are calling captaincy of Rohit Sharma unimpressive!” he said.
“I guess 6 ducks in Delhi and 90 election losses is impressive but winning T20 World Cup isn’t! Rohit has a brilliant track record as captain by the way!” he added.
Shama Mohamed’s own party schooled her over her remarks and asked her to be more cautious in future. Congress leader Pawan Khera said that her statements do not reflect the party’s official stance and that the party had asked her to take her posts down.
Even after deleting the posts, Shama defended her statements saying that she did not mean to “body-shame” Rohit Sharma but was making a generic statement. “It was a generic tweet about the fitness of a sportsperson. It was not body-shaming. I always believed a sportsperson should be fit, and I felt he was a bit overweight, so I just tweeted about that. I have been attacked for no reason,” she told news agency ANI.
