The Supreme Court on Thursday lashed out at the Centre for allowing private businessmen and politicians to ruin the national game of hockey that once used to win medals but now had degenerated to abysmally low levels after politics entered the game.
The Court made its anguish felt during a proceeding where two warring factions — Indian Hockey Federation and Hockey India, staked claim to run the affairs of the game. Wondering what responsibility the Government had in allowing things to come to such a pass, a bench of Justices TS Thakur and J Chelameshwar said, “Government is unable to streamline these things. Be it hockey or wrestling, is there any federation which is not in court.”
Sounding critical of the total disdain the sport suffered at the hands of its political masters, the bench remarked, “In which country will you find national sport being degenerated into such a stage where you are fighting who will control the game.” While businessmen and busy bodies reigned over sport bodies, the bench wished to know if there was a single hockey player as a board member. “Where any game is happening in China, Japan or anywhere, these officials get to visit with them (team). They have picked up a stick just to enter the game,” said the bench, in a damning indictment of the sport bodies.
The bench rued the fact that earlier, hockey won at least a medal for the country. “Now we don’t even qualify,” the judges observed, adding, “Politics in this game has brought this sport to this low.”