The Prime Minister in his Mann Ki Baat radio address to the people on Sunday touched upon a couple of key issues. None was more important than the ongoing protests in Kashmir.
Yet again, Modi offered the olive branch to the trouble-makers, exhorting them to give up the path of violence. He said that the ring leaders instigating young children to throw stones at the security forces would be made accountable. In a forceful appeal to Kashmiris, the PM declared that any loss of life in the Valley “is our loss, a loss of our own people and of our country.”
The entire country was united on Kashmir, while he promised to deal with the situation with compassion. Meanwhile, Modi also touched upon the recent Rio Olympic Games.
Paying fulsome tribute to the medal-winners, he announced a task force to improve India’s performance over the coming Olympics. A strategy for training and selection of talented players is to be set up for the purpose. However, the Prime Minister would be well-advised to begin by using his considerable influence to revamp various sporting organisations before undertaking player selection and training.
Almost all sporting bodies in various disciplines are dominated by cliques which have had a vice-like grip over them for ages. These need to be rid of vested interests and groupism. This is not an easy task, as we currently witness in the case of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Though some of the recommendations of the Lodha committee are controversial, overall their implementation can only achieve the objective of cleansing the Augean stables of Indian cricket.
To return to the Prime Minister’s decision to set up a task force, it is absolutely imperative that only professionals with a passion for the sport and imbued with a sense of national pride are chosen to staff it. Following a fair and just selection, adequate funds for sports infrastructure and training must be made available.
Money plays a key role in harnessing natural talent of individual players. In this regard the example of the British is apt. The main reason why the British emerged second in the medals tally at the Rio Olympics is the infusion of funds into the development of sports in the country. Following the dismal performance of the British in the 1996 Olympics, then Prime Minister John Major took a conscious decision to launch a national lottery the income from which was to be mainly devoted for the development of sports.
From one gold medal in the Atlanta Games, British tally went up to 27 in Rio but in the intervening period the funding for sports too had risen from five million British sterling to 274 million pound sterling. Whether a national lottery on the lines of the British can be launched here for funding sports is not clear but there can be no denying the need for providing enough funds for the nourishment of our sporting talent.
Admittedly, a few months before the Rio Games the Government did loosen the purse strings for various participants but, as their performance showed, it proved too little too late. Champions cannot be made overnight. It is a painstaking process which starts in pre-teen years and continues well into adulthood.
The uneasy relationship between the BJP and the Shiv Sena has made for a poor PR for the ruling coalition in Maharashtra. But before the recriminations reach a breaking point ahead of the Mumbai civic polls next year, it is imperative that the two parties reach an understanding. Initiative must be taken by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Not only Mumbai, an agreement must be reached on seat-sharing for other civic bodies in the State. Admittedly, the 2012 formula for the division of seats in Mumbai may no longer be relevant. The BJP performance in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls since then cannot be ignored. The BJP was allocated 63 seats last time, with the Sena contesting 135, leaving a few for others in the 227-member Corporation. The BJP reportedly is demanding a hundred seats. These may be early days yet but wisdom lies in the two parties defusing the issue before it casts a bitter spell on the ruling coalition in the State. Nothing can be gained by allowing the potentially divisive issue to hang fire. Both parties should settle the share of seats amicably. Civic conditions in Mumbai have deteriorated over the years. Dog-fight over the control of the country’s richest civic body does not augur well for the long-suffering Mumbaikars.
