The debacle at Rio has once again revealed how Indian sports is being strangulated by greedy politicians and administrators who are only interested in furthering their own vested interests
The image of an Indian citizen from Kalahandi carrying the dead body of his wife on his shoulders with his young distraught daughter accompanying him shall persist in the minds of many for some time. The hospital and the district bureaucracy have absolved themselves of any responsibility: “He never requested for any assistance”! On the same lines, the sports bureaucracy has pounced on marathon runner OP Jaisha who dared to complain of non-availability of even drinking water, what to say of nutrition supplements!
If you can digest, accept the official version: She had declined to have any water or nutrition before hand; and we just accepted it! After having finished her 42.5-km marathon she collapsed at the finishing line. No one from the Indian contingent was there to receive and revive her. ‘Others’ helped her. She was totally dehydrated and exhausted. She could come to senses only after more than three hours and the rest is well-known. She is lucky to have survived the ordeal.
Meanwhile, the Athletic Federation of India, in its true bureaucratic and feudal colours, got another marathoner from India to make a statement that everything was fine and she had no complains about any neglect of inadequacy. Rio, for India, once again, reveals how Indian sports and games are being strangulated by greedy politicians and moneybags who are interested only in their own clan.
The Indian contingent was accompanied by a cardiologist, the son of an incumbent vice president of the Indian Olympic Association. This has happened in the past too when someone else was the vice president. Traditions must be maintained. The most illustrative of examples comes from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). In the interest of promoting cricket in India, a delegation of 45 officers from the national and State units of the BCCI went to the US to watch two T-20 matches between India and West Indies in Florida! Young aspirant cricketers must realise that it is far simpler, easy and lucrative to become a part of sports management system than sweating out in the field! The BCCI is the most illustrative of the arrogance of the sports associations. Transparency and respect for the people do not exist in their dictionary.
The manner in which the lodha committee recommendations are being circumvented by the Board leaves no doubt in the minds of the people why vested interests are not willing to let sports persons manage their own affairs. It does provide an example of political differences melting away when it comes to power and pelf in the name of promoting sports and games in the country.
India won Silver and a Bronze in Rio. There were a couple of commendable performances which did not fetch a medal but deserve great appreciation. Obviously, it is a poor performance. It must be accepted in the true spirit that sports and games are supposed to inculcate and put to practice. Olympics, every four year, provides an opportunity to seriously delineate strong and weak points, prioritise the action points and remove the bottlenecks.
The returning athetletes deserved to be left to themselves, relax and spend time with their family. That was not to be, it is not acceptable to our politicians. They just were all-alert to grab attention, felicitate the winners and even play badminton with PV Sindhu getting a wonderful photo-op! One fells relieved that his example was not followed by the brother Chief Minister who was proud of Sakshi Malik being from his State!
Dipa Karmakar, a great achiever and greater innovator, was perhaps the only one whose reception was spontaneous. Another aspect that was not noted in animated TV debates and media coverage was the role of pioneers like Sania Mirja and Saina Nehwal who have won laurels for the country and whose contributions gave immeasurable credibility to Indian talent in areas of their pursuit. They lost their initial matches, but do they deserve to be ignoredIJ Such contradictions extend far and wide. Sports persons who are, and everyone knows it, treated shabbily by the officials of the sports bodies, just cannot complain. Rest assured, OP Jaisha, who has in her innocence, stated the facts, shall be written off quietly in due course of time by the Athletics Federation of India.
What is common between the tragic reports from Kalahandi, and the travails of OP Jaisha in Rio, or the junket being led by the 45-person BCCI to Florida in executive class to watch the T-20IJ It is systemic lack of accountability and individualist arrogance of authority. It all arises from inadequate value development in initial stages of education. One wonders why the image of anxious children without any arrangements for sports and games in lakhs of schools does not impact the sports associations and boards in India. You just cannot provide even bare minimum facilities in schools, hospitals, you just cannot maintain your existing stadia, fail to provide right training and coaches, unable to give your players right gear and kit in time, but unashamedly enjoy junkets and splurge people’s money without any hesitations.
The winners from Rio must be counting their crores; no one is saying anything about ‘huge’ awards being shelled out of public money to individuals by way of rewards from Governments, public sector organisations and even individuals. This, it is felt, is not the time to raise the issue of irrelevance of the amounts being shelled out like monarchs of democracy, people are only praying that this would not impact adversely the future performance of our achievers. After all, the advertisement gurus are waiting in the wings with their money bags, far weighty than what governments could offer!
One could be confident that the sports bureaucracy would certainly not be interested in the following words of Gandhi Ji: “I will give you a Talisman. Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by itIJ Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destinyIJ In other words, will it lead to Swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millionsIJ Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away”.
PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar made us proud. That does not mean that the traumatised and anguished face of OP Jaisha could not only be ignored but ridiculedIJ That should not happen in a civilised society that claims to be the inheritors of the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi.
We learnt no lessons from the Common Wealth Games 2010. Post-Rio, what needs to be doneIJ Go to improve sports facilities in schools, and teacher training institutions. Instead of showering huge amounts on individual achievers, declare that every district that has produced an Olympic medal winner as the ‘sports district of India’. let this number increase every year. Political parties can really regain, at least partially, their credibility, if they decide to withdraw their functionaries from Sports bodies. Every sports body must be brought under RTI and, as a rule, be managed by only achievers and not onlookers and self-seekers.