Political Diary

New Delhi, 24 April 2010

                                         Indian Paisa Limited – II

POLITICIANS SPOIL-SPORTS

By Poonam I Kaushish

In 1996 at the final hearing of theinfamous hawala scam that overpoweredpolitical India during former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s tenure, the mainaccused Surender Jain reportedly queried the judge, “I have been indicted forpaying hefty bribes to politicians, but am in the dark as to who the monieswere paid to as all those named in my “diaries” of receiving the sums have beendeclared innocent!”

A joke, call it what you may, butthis encapsulates our netagan’sadroit ‘handling and disengagement ’of their alleged involvement in variousscandals:  From the 1992 stock market tothe Satyam saga 2009. While the stock perpetrator, Harshad Mehta is dead,Satyam’s Ramalinga Raju languishes in jail. Raising a moot point: Will historyrepeat itself in the current multi-million IPL scam?

Bluntly, will its Chairman LalitModi be made the bali ka bakra, whilethe fat political cats in the exclusive cosy, closed  Board of Control for Cricket of India (BCCI)club get away scot free? On the facetious plea that the desh ki izzat is synonymous with their credibility, while privatecitizens are expendable when the murky dealings get exposed. Never mind Tharoorwho paid the price of being the “outsider” trying to break in.

Undoubtedly, in the swirlingfree-for-all eddy of skeletons tumbling out of the IPL-BCCI cupboard daily,Modi needs to go. But so do his political mai-baapsin the BCCI. Read NCP supremo Sharad Pawar. Politically speaking, it isunderstandable for the Congress to distance itself from the unfurling scandalgiven that it needs NCP’s vital 9 MPs to keep the Government afloat.

But in the larger context of sports per se Modi is only a symptom ofan-all-pervasive malady which has ensnared sports in a vicious Octopus grip inwhich sport has ceased to be a sport. Wherein it has become another pocketborough of our netagan to wield powerand money. Wherein crores are spent in deals over-the-table and under-the-tablein keenly fought elections for control over various sports bodies. Only togenerate more money via hijacking Government funds, sponsors, TV and mediarights etc and enlarge their fiefdom.

Consider: Suresh Kalmadi, a formerUnion Minister heads the Indian Olympics Association. Sharad Pawar, the UnionAgriculture Minister and ex-Chief of BCCI is in the IPL governing council, V.K.Malhotra, BJP Chief in Delhi Assembly oversees the Archery Federation of India,MP Ajay Chautala heads the wrestling association, post Union Minister PRDasmunshi taking ill, Kamadi leads the All India Football Federation. The RJDChief Lalu Yadav, heads the Bihar Cricket Association, former police officerK.P.S. Gill is the czar of the Indian Hockey Federation for 14 years,notwithstanding that we failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Othersports organizations like table tennis, boxing, judo et al are also led bypoliticians whose expertise in or knowledge of these games is at best tenuous.

Yet we call ourselves a nation ofsport lovers. Spoil sports is more like it. Think. In a billion plus nationonly 3 per cent of us play sports. Why do we have only the  occasional Sachin Tendulkar, Avinash Bindra,Vishwanathan Anand, Geet Seth,  LeanderPaes and Saina Nehwal? Why can’t we produce badminton players like theIndonesians and table tennis players like the Chinese? Or scout for swimmingtalent among three years old like Russian coaches do?

Sadly, games after games, year afteryear, it is the same story. Indiasends one of the largest contingents, but comes back with wins that are trulyembarrassing. Since 1984, we have won only three Olympic medals while China managed420 in the same period -- including 100 in the Beijing Olympics.

Arguably, why do we send such largecontingents? Shockingly, the accompanying officials outnumbered sportsmen in Beijing. Do our netas and babus accompany the sportspersons to do their shopping and earndaily allowances in dollars? Or to dress up as cheerleaders (like seen in the IPL) and dance every time an Indian shooter takes aimed or a weightlifter preparedhimself for each round? What was their contribution to Indian sports? And wecrib why India has such an abysmal record in sports, barring cricket and hockeyin the distant past!

Much of the problem with developingOlympic champions seems to be rooted in the very same things that make India aperpetual also-ran to China in economic development: poor infrastructure,entrenched political corruption and infighting, and chaos and disorganization.There is no strategy, no action plan, no working hard at getting there. Moneyearmarked for Olympic training is often mysteriously sidelined, facilities fortraining are in poor shape and equipment goes missing.

What next? How is the Governmentgoing to pull out the country from this sports morass?  For starters, sport must become a nationalpriority for India to do well. It is high time for the Sports Minister toensure that all sporting bodies and associations in the country are totallyaccountable to it, elections held for appointing office bearers of sportingassociations are done under its total supervision and annual audit.

We need to give politicians and babus the boot from sports bodies. Whobreak bend, warp, twist and ignore all rules, paving the way for mediocrity,degeneration and collapse. Politicians who have little to contribute, but a lotto gain and replace them with fine, upright, capable sports lovers or formersportsmen with a clear mandate to make India a super power in sports.

Talent must be spotted at theprimary school level-"catch em young" and trained in facilities thatcompare with the best in the world. They must also be given the opportunity tostudy along side, so that they are able to develop their talent and get aneducation at the same time. Along with various incentives. Once selected, theGovernment should take care of the financial needs. This way the player is ableto concentrate totally on his practice without having to worry about money.

Simultaneously, develop sportsinfrastructure, making it amenable and affordable. These facilities should notbe concentrated in State capitals, but be more widespread. Example, archerycompetitions could be held around our tribal belts where natural talent andskills abound. State governments must take inter-school sports competitionsmore seriously and systematically conduct them. Each State must have its ownheroes and heroines in a dozen sports.

Competitions at various levels(regional, district, state, zones and national) need to be held so that our topsports persons are drawn from a large pool of sportsmen. We need an"Indian Olympics" that will increase competition and throw up morepromising athletes and truly world-class performers. Perhaps the Governmentshould consider a tax holiday for all investments in creation of sportsinfrastructure by the private sector, along with larger investment credits ascandidates trained by them win medals in international sports competitions.Such measures will not only bring more resources to sports organizations, butthey will also raise the bar of sports all around.

In sum, it is high time to set oursports house in order.  We will neverreach ‘golden’ heights as long as the coaches have to report to a JointSecretary in the Sports Ministry and players have to depend on officiallargesse.  Let’s face it, rescuing sportfrom the grip of our netagan,  deceit and money will be not only an uphilltask but a lot of sweat and tears. It is not a question of one Modi and theBCCI but many many more. The time has come to stem the rot and do a Chak DeIndia! Or else reconcile to being a nation spoil sports! – INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)