Decline of national game
MEN, MATTERS & MEMORIES

By M L Kotru

Shahrukh Khan, the actor turned cricket entrepreneur, was being nothing but honest when he told an audience of Kolkatta pen-pushers, while pledging his love for Kolkatta and its team of professional IPL players (latter his property now), that he was in it because it made good business sense. Not one trick did he miss as he tried to mesmerise his audience which included Kolkatta's glitterati including the city police chief, who also happens to be the cricket chief of the State association, not to mention his not so glorious role in the now forgotten (almost) Rizwanur suicide/murder episode.

The Bollywood megastar, never at a loss for words, did shed a few crocodile tears for the fate of Indian hockey, not to miss football the traditional staple of sports crazy Bengalis. He loved cricket, hockey, football, gilli-danda, all these and more. Why, he had even played hockey. When, where or how no one asked and he wouldn't volunteer either.

Then there was the trump card he brandished-prompted by someone from among his audience. His Chak de India, a block-buster movie about an unsung Indian women's hockey team's triumph in the world cup of his film's dreams. He was for ‘‘Chak-deing’’ every Indian sport, except that he has not seen any money in other sports apart from the tons grossed by his flick-on Indian hockey. Good business sense. Or, even good common sense. Who would touch the carcass of a dead Indian hockey ? The last nail in India's hockey's coffin may have been put in place in far away Santiago when the national team, for the first time in 80 years, failed even to qualify for a place among the teams contesting for the Olympic title in Beijing.

And it need not have been so. Except for the malign presence at the top of the Indian Hockey Federation of the retired Punjab cop KPS Gill. For almost a decade plus this man has single handedly ensured that Indian hockey is not the force that it was, even after the Europeans and the Australians had started making their presence in the international arena felt. Even a former chief of the International Hockey Federation (IHF) was not so many years ago constrained to bemoan the loss of Indian hockey's prestige, its fall from grace, as it were.

Like the International Football Federation chief, the FIH boss had offered help. Football is, of course a different financial ball game internationally, its standards (of play) so high that we Indians are happy to rank among the low 140s in the world. The last one heard of Indian football at the international level was when Bengal's Mewa Lal and others made it to the Olympics quarter final, most of the Indians playing barefooted. That was in Helsinki (1952), if my recall is right.

But hockey was one sport which most Indians had come to accept as the country's national game. Every school, every college and university and every State boasted of a hockey team. Inter-club tournaments in various cities had come to be accepted as a routine. I remember in the Delhi of 1950's upto 5,000 people packing up the hockey ground then called Lady Hardinge ground and now known as the Shivaji Stadium, to witness the local league finals. Other cities boasted of their own tournaments such as the Beighton Cup, the Ubaidullah Cup- and a few others. Then there was the ‘‘National’’, the ultimate in inter-State hockey rivalry. Various State associations would fall one upon another to lay claim to staging the ‘‘National’’. And there was no Sports Ministry or Sports Council then to fork out the money.

To Gill must go the credit for having ‘‘killed’’ the hockey national. Not unexpected perhaps from a man whose sole claim to fame has been ‘‘his’’ taming of the Khalistani terror in the Punjab. There are those who are still asking questions of Gill's involvement, as the Punjab Police chief of the day, in the unaccounted deaths of hundreds of Punjabis during his final push against the Khalistanis. Some have alleged that bull-dozers and tractors were virtually converted into armoured vehicles to mow down suspected terrorists hiding in the greenfields which some allege became killing fields.

KPS Gill has naturally come to be recognised as an expert on anti-terrorism. Except that the old man- he must be in his late 70s if not 80s- has used almost similar tactics to protect his fief. Once he laid his hands on the Indian Hockey Federation. He has been extremely intolerant of criticism from colleagues within the IHF. He has acted as a virtual dictator even in matters involving selection of players, let alone the rapid-fire hiring and firing of coaches for the team. He is known to have objected to the presence in the team of individual players, and not necessarily on their form or performance. It is always his whims and fancies that have prevailed.

Like, when the rest of the nation was mourning the ‘‘shame’’ of Santiago (India's failure to qualify for the Olympics) the former cop, with a twirl of his well-waxed moustache, pronounced his unconcern. Results are not achieved in a matter of day or weeks. Or words to that effect, is how Gill saw the debacle. Not one word of regret. Not from the types of Gill. He cannot be wrong, never.

That's what his lackeys in the police department used to say when he was their boss particularly during his spell as the Punjab Police Chief. I remember the day when he was so annoyed with a sports reporter at a Press conference at New Delhi's Le Meridien Hotel some years ago, that he asked his cops to get hold of the man, who was chased right out of the hotel and to his office in Connaught Circus. The difference this time was that Gill had to personally visit the newspaper office the next day to offer his apologies- not his really, but on behalf of his lackeys.

And I am not surprised one whit that after the Santiago debacle and India's miserable placement in world rankings, the governing body of international hockey should have expressed second thoughts about having allotted the 2010 World Cup to India, supposed to be staged in New Delhi. The FIH is meeting in Switzerland during the next few days to take a final decision on whether to go ahead with Delhi as the venue.

If they were to ask me, and if Gill were to ask the Sports Ministry or some corporate entity or the other to shell out the dough to make the Delhi do possible I would tell everyone to keep off as long as Gill is at the helm of the IHF. Autonomy of sports bodies be blown if it ends up in bringing disgrace to the country, obliterating, as it were, the glory that Indian hockey once was.

I saw Dhyan Chand at play when he was well past his mid 40s; I remember how some 20,000 spectators rose to their feet for the sheer joy of watching the ageing magician wield the stick. Many great hockey players including the likes of the two Balbirs, Udham Singh, Sahib Singh, Leo Pinto, Leslie Claudius and a host of those magicians with supple wrists from Tamilnadu who brought glory to the Indian colours in the past. One wonders how, in these Gill years, why Indian hockey has been systematically strangled.

Even that tiny village in Gill's own Punjab, Sansarpur, near Jallandhar was once considered a ‘‘granary’’ of hockey talent. You don't build up a sport, any sport, by staging annual or biannual training camps. To build up hockey or any sport you have to go to the grassroots, talent-hunting, building up infrastructure at the district level by providing astro turfs and other such modern accessories. You are not supposed to put an end to local and national competitions. It's only through these contests that you build up a pool of talent.

You don't have to blame the rules which have no doubt been bended to favour non-subcontinental style of play; you don't have to blame bad foreign umpires. I was surprised to hear a player of Joaqim Carvalho's seniority, and the coach of the team beaten in Santiago, arguing that bad refereeing had cost the Indian dear. Then, why does an internationally acknowledged retired Australian hockey player like Ric Charlesworth, assigned to guide the future course of Indian hockey, get sidelined and not allowed to go to Santiago when he should have been there. Carvalho, it is said, opposed his going with the team. And Charlesworth, perhaps not unaccustomed to ways of the Indian Hockey Federation and its boss, was instead asked to stay back in Australia. The IHF would not pay his fare from Australia to India for him to be on hand when the team left or to travel with it.

If Mr KPS Gill is not persuaded to relax his stranglehold on Indian hockey, this may well be the end of the Indian hockey dream. Even a dozen Shah Rukh Khan's or a million ‘‘chak des’’ will not ‘‘chak de’’ Indian hockey. A sad thought but one that makes sense at least to me.

And if you don't agree with me listen to what Ela Van Breda Vriseman, President of the International Hockey Federation has to say;

‘‘I can imagine this is a disappointment for India, as it is for all other teams that did not qualify. The India men's team is the record gold medallist in our sport, and has participated in all Olympic Games from 1928 until 2004’’.

‘‘The result shows that Indian Hockey now needs to implement the Operational Plans which were provided nearly a year ago as part of the ‘Promoting Indian Hockey’ project, without any further delay.

‘‘In these plans, Ric Charlesworth is going to play an instrumental role for a more structural development of Indian hockey in the long-term, while he can also be of great assistance in the short term with the help of the Ministry of Sports and the Indian Hockey Confederation.’’

Caught in Iraq quicksands

By Arun Nehru

We live in turbulent times and the war in Iraq and several external and internal conflicts in every part of the globe are overshadowed by the 'turbulence' in the stock markets and a virtual collapse of certain monetary policies [extreme right] as huge investment and banking institutions in the USA are close to collapse and clearly in addition to a major shift in consumption patterns between the West and the East over the next decade we will witness changes which a few years ago were unthinkable! The US government bails out Bear Stearns [assets of 600 billion] as the UK government had bailed out Northern Rock [100 billion] and there may be a few more institutions who may require assistance to survive in the next few months as a combination of greed, fraud and lack of any viable audit and regulations cause a great deal of misery to millions of investors and employees in the 'developed' world. Many institutions will rely on sovereign funds to survive and clearly ownership will shift to the Middle East and the East as rising oil prices and a record GDP growth generates resources for investment. Change is in the 'air' and the large gap in GDP between the USA/Europe and the BRIC countries over the next decade would produce significant changes. We have to examine the issues both from the short term and the long term implications and I think these will result in many changes in politics, economic policy and immigration implications in the future.

The market in India drops by 1,000 points and the prophets of gloom will predict dire consequences and in the very short term they will be right as the global economy melts down from events in the USA. Growth figures on GDP will average 8-8.5% in 2008 and even in this quarter the advance tax payments are 'positive' but these in the immediate short term may have little effect as the USA spins into recession and stagflation as huge bail outs mean printing new currency and inflation is unavoidable and the 'ripple' effects from the largest economy will create uncertainty and chaos and the war in Iraq with a cost of anything between 500 billion to 1 trillion [no revenue on oil resources ] with little political or military success will only be tempered after a 'new' administration takes over and there is little hesitancy in correcting the blunders on the immediate past. The mood in the global community is 'glum' and the virtual collapse and incompetence shown by many leaders in the financial world in the USA and other Western countries has shattered the credibility factor and look at the recent 'issues' and the pathetic levels of investment by the public in India to certain foreign institutions. The US and many in the Western world will face huge financial problems and unemployment levels coupled with loss of jobs may well lead to tightening of immigration rules and there may be accusations of a racial bias and these will attract retaliation and create tensions to consolidation of a global economy. Reality always prevails in the end and as a economy we are doing well in 'comparative 'terms and investments will not be effected. No government in a free society can legislate or control the 'greed factor' and sadly many have to suffer for actions initiated by a few who are able to get away with literal fraud due to poor regulations. The authority of the US political system is being tested and 'bail outs' are little more than a temporary measure and the global mood will remain uncertain till the situation gets greater clarity with accurate disclosures in the financial sector.

The long term prospects [next six months] are positive and I think we will have a 8/8.5% growth on GDP and clearly the government besides dealing with the issue of inflation has to expedite the execution and delivery of infrastructure projects and nothing illustrates this better than the recent issues in the new airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad [both ready] where infrastructure facilities have delayed operations! We cannot afford these lapses and better accountability is required for project execution where Central and State governments are involved. The private sector has performed a miracle of sorts and we cannot take this for granted. We have no financial negatives, we have reserves [external and internal], we have savings and we have all these positives and we need good political management and we must assist the global community to bring order into the financial markets. We are major global players and whilst we need not pay attention to sermons [farm loan write off's] there is a clear need for better regulations as foreign 'flows' and investment will continue as long as the economy sustains a 8% plus growth rate. We are human like everyone else but one of the lessons of history is that even in the most difficult times positives eventually prevail and things move forward with time.

The media highlight the tragic murder of a teenager in Goa and both the accused deserve the maximum punishment and hopefully these issues will be treated with a 'fast track' judicial approach as we have seen in some states. There is also another issue highlighted by the British media on the 'poverty' levels of the family and the unfortunate conditions in which they live in the UK and there is mention of drug usage and prison terms and I think it reflects poorly on our screening procedure [Indian citizen's are asked for tax returns, credit card details etc] for granting a 'visa' and how does someone [several members] with poverty levels travel from the UK to India and where do they get the resources to stay in Goa? The murder case with the assistance of the media has perhaps been resolved but the role of the police besides the routine 'suspension' needs greater attention and also the issue of drug supply and usage and clearly the Chief Minister has much to do on the issue of criminality and the Home Ministry would be well advised to tighten the procedure of granting visa's and perhaps we can adopt the same scrutiny and documents used by the EU with Indian passport holders.

Spirit of the constitution

By G. S. Bhargava

Ever since the coming into force of our Constitution in 1952, making India a democratic republic, the anniversary of which is celebrated as Republic Day with pomp and pageantry following a military parade, it has been both the convention and practice for key Cabinet ministers to be members of the directly elected Lok Sabha. Of course, it goes without saying that the Head of the Government or the Prime Minister should be so. It is central to the Westminster system, as also a key feature of other parliamentary democracies. In the US, too, the Senate-is never bypassed. The Administrative Reforms commissions headed by K.Santanam and Morarji Desai had reiterated the principle. Nehru was a stickler for it.

When Maulana Azad's traditional constituency in Calcutta seemed sticky, he contested and won the election from a Meo majority area in the present day Haryana. He could have taken the easy route to Parliament through the Rajya Sabha. Although education is not a key portfolio, being originally in the States List and later unilaterally incorporated in the Concurrent List by Indira Gandhi, since Maulana Azad was one of the Big Three -- after Nehru and Patel -- Nehru was keen he should be in the Lower House.

Thus Nehru, Sardar Patel and Maulana Azad, among others, were from the Lower House, as per the spirit of the Constitution. Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur, daughter of (Sir) Maharaj Singh, who was a close companion of Gandhiji, was health minister from the Upper House. She was a Christian.

Incidentally, in one of Rajiv Gandhi's 22 Cabinet reshuffles in 39- month tenure, he had relegated P.V.Narasimha Rao to head a combination of Health, Education and assorted departments, which has collectively come to be called the Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD), now with Arjun Singh, also a Rajya Sabha MP! That was after Narasimha Rao's dummy role as Home Minister during the anti-Sikh pogrom following Indira Gandhi's assassination. The veteran was thus a jack-of-all-trades and also master of them. Asked whether it was a 'demotion' from the portfolios of external affairs, defence and home he had earlier handled, Narasimha Rao replied almost philosophically that senior IAS officers would not fancy working for junior departments but it did not matter.

Reverting to Nehru's democratic spirit, he would sit through the Lok Sabha debates on subjects being directly handled by him, initially only external affairs, even if the speeches were sycophantic by most Congress MPs and rhetorical by Opposition members. It was so until his health had begun to fail, after the traumatic Sino-Indian border conflict of 1962 and the subsequent paralytic stroke he suffered at Bhubaneswar in 1964.

Earlier, with a view to inducting outside talent to handle the technical finance portfolio, Nehru drafted first (Sir) V.T. Shanmukham Chetty followed by Dr. John Mathai of the House of Tatas and then Chintamani Deshmukh, retired Reserve Bank Governor, an ICS man and a former Knight of the British Government, but all of them entered the Lok Sabha through by-elections, and not nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

A.K. Gopalan, the venerated CPI leader from Kerala, who later crossed over to the CPI (Marxist) faction, was the leader of the Communist group in the Lok Sabha but since he was not fluent in English and there was no provision for speaking in other Indian languages, including Malayalam, Professor Hiren Mukherjee, the deputy leader would be the de facto leader and main speaker from the CPI.

As the undivided CPI was the largest Opposition group in the Lok Sabha. Erudite Hiren-da was given to flowery speeches of learned length with or without thundering sound. When the Ho Chi Minh forces flushed the U.S. troops from South Vietnam, Hiren-da led his group in singing "hamara nam, hamara nam Vietnam, Vietnam." It was hilarious but the Speaker, G.V.Mavalankar, let it go.

In 1966, similarly, Indira Gandhi, who was a Rajya Sabha member when she succeeded Lal Bahadur Shastri as prime minister, entered the Lower House through a by-election within the stipulated six-month period. Still, during the six-month interregnum Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia and his supporters would rudely demand that she leave the Lok Sabha whenever the division bell rang.

Further, after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination at Sriperambudur in Tamil Nadu in1991, Narasimha Rao succeeded him. He was not a member of either House of Parliament. He had taken political sanyas with plans to settle with his children. In that context, he entered the Lok Sabha through a by-election from Nandyal in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. True, the MP who vacated the seat had been accommodated in the Rajya Sabha but not as a minister.

In other words, it was unthinkable that the Head of Government would sneak into Parliament through the Rajya Sabha. The damage it does to the spirit of our Republican democratic system cannot be brushed aside. On the one hand, dynastic succession to the leadership of the ruling party is an affront to the republican idea; the prime minister ducking the Lower House aggravates it.

Equally unfortunate is the practice of defeated legislators being made State Governors. Expediency might serve in the short term but in the long run it erodes the spirit of democracy which Nehru and his fellow first- generation national leaders had toiled to build. (Syndicate Features)

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