Before India-Pak T-20 Clash, Prominent Indians Made the Same ‘Coin Toss’ Joke

High-profile Indians turned the pre-match coin toss into an opportunity to poke fun at Pakistan’s economy, shortly before the latter’s decisive victory on the pitch.

New Delhi: Prior to Pakistan’s 10-wicket rout of India in the Super 12 stage of the T-20 World Cup on Sunday, October 24, several prominent Indians took to Twitter to turn Pakistan winning the coin toss into a joke at the country’s expense.

In his tweet, journalist Rajesh Mahapatra pointed out that four high-profile Indians, Harsh Vardhan Goenka, Anil Swarup, S.P. Shukla and Gaurav Bhatia all recycled the same joke aimed at Pakistan’s economy. What’s more, all the concerned tweets were phrased almost identically. 

The joke was: Pakistan has won the toss and decided to take the coin back to Pakistan to improve their economy.

Goenka is the chairman of the industrial conglomerate, the Rama Prasad Goenka (RPG) Group and eldest son of noted Indian industrialist Rama Prasad Goenka. According to Forbes, he is the 77th richest Indian in the world.

Swarup is a former bureaucrat of the Uttar Pradesh cadre of the IAS who has served in the Union government in various capacities throughout his 38-year-long career. He has worked as the education secretary, the coal secretary and as the additional secretary of the cabinet secretariat as well.

Shukla serves as the group president of the defence, aerospace and agriculture sectors of the Mahindra group. What’s more, he served as the president of the Reliance Group from 1996 – 2011. 

Bhatia is a senior Supreme Court advocate who has served as the additional advocate general of the UP high court as well as the secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). In recent years, he has become a national spokesperson of the ruling BJP.

The repurposed joke did not go unnoticed by Twitter users, among whom was one Bismaya who appended an image of fuel prices in the two countries to show how the joke, besides being in poor taste, was also not factually accurate.