Centurion Usman Khawaja 'victim of BJP bigotry'.

NEW DELHI -- The fact that Australian batsman Usman Khawaja was initially denied an Indian visa because of his Pakistani origins has been blamed on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by Australian sports writers and Indian cricket enthusiasts alike.

That Khawaja cracked a century at the first outing at Ahmedabad, where the prime ministers of India and Australia took an unusual lap of honour, was only a bittersweet outcome, said historian Ramchandra Guha in an interview with Karan Thapar on Saturday.

Prof Guha, a well-regarded cricket historian too, was commenting on the remarks by Malcolm Conn in The Sydney Morning Herald, slamming the denial of visa to Khawaja.

'When a well-regarded sports writer reflects on the attitude of India's ruling party and its ecosystem toward Muslim sportspersons, it should make everyone sit up and take note,' wrote M.K. Venu in The Wire.

Australian writer slams Indian govt for cricketer's 'maltreatment' over Pakistani roots

'Conn of The Sydney Morning Herald has brought out the rich irony of Usman Khawaja's brilliant century on day one of the fourth Test match between India and Australia, which started after the well-choreographed chariot ride around the stadium by PM Narendra Modi, accompanied by his Australian counterpart,' The Wire report said.

Mr Guha said the treatment of Khawaja was 'vicious and spiteful ... and shows India in a poor light'. He added it 'shames us ... belittles us,' Prof Guha told Thapar.

Conn said two standout performances on the first day were by Usman Khawaja, who scored a century, and from Mohammed Shami on the Indian side, who took two out of four wickets. 'Sadly, both Khawaja and Shami have been targets of bigotry flowing from the Hindu nationalist ecosystem in India,' The Wire reported.

Without mincing his words, Conn states that the 'Hindu nationalist' government of the BJP sees 'Khawaja not as one of Australia's finest cricketers but as a Muslim born in Pakistan'.

Khawaja was initially refused a visa by the Indian government and couldn't travel with the Aussie cricket team on Feb 1. Only later, after the Australian...