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India Wins Gold,
and Loses
WSN Network
India is celebrating Abhinav Bindra's Gold and state after state
government is announcing rewards for him, but a very important
aspect is being missed altogether. Bindra's Gold has shown how the
government has completely abdicated its responsibility to invest in
its players, thus leaving the corporatised and the rich to make it
to success with their own resources.
Abhinav won because
he was lucky to have a rich father: a house spread over 10 acres, an
Olympic standard range at home, foreign coaches employed privately.
Many poor Eklavyas lose out because their fathers cannot afford all
this, and the Government virtually cuts off their thumb before they
take aim.
This has been a
story across the board: Viswanathan Anand for chess, Geet Sethi for
billiards, Pankaj Advani for billiards and snooker, Sachin Tendulkar
and Mahendra Singh Dhoni in cricket, Leander Paes in tennis,
Manavjit Singh Sandhu in shooting. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore got
army support, Anjali Bhagwat got government backing only after she
hit the headlines. Anju Bobby George hit top of the world charts in
long jump because her husband gave up his career to become her
full-time coach and she was lucky to train with former world record
holder Mike Powell of the US. And please do not even try telling us
that some like Dhanraj Pillay did get the support of the government.
If you would someday talk to him about it, most of the remarks about
what the government did for him would be unprintable. And KPS Gill
is a four letter word, as everyone and his uncle knows.
India has clearly
left the sporting honours for the globalised, capitalised, rich and
the already arrived. A PT Usha, a Dhayan Chand is no more welcome. A
Milkha Singh is not, a Jeev Milkha Singh is.
13 August, 2008
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