India and the Olympics
A couple weeks ago, I was on vacation when I read the headline on the internet: "Even God can't help India: Supreme Court of India". But obviously excited by the hair-raising headline, I scrambled to read the details. I was curious to know how a Supreme Court judgment, one that should be unemotional and logical, could be so pessimistic and depressive. As I read on, the report said that the SC judges BN Agrawal and GS Singhvi were reacting to the Indian Government's reluctance in amending a law that could pose stringent hindrances to politicians who overstay in their subsidized accommodation at New Delhi or other state capitals, sometimes long after they have completed their political roles. It won't be surprising to hear that a politician's family is still using Government accommodation while he is serving a prison sentence for having someone murdered when he was a CM 4 years ago!The report further mentions that "the governments have become non-functional", and that "even God will be a silent spectator as He will be helpless". What does this mean to all of us? Something we all knew for the last 20 years? Or something that completely trashes the glowing image of India we'd all like to carry in our hearts no matter where we go? All along, even as we complained about India and the politics, the population, the illiteracy and the crime, we were always proud that India had something remarkable that is unique: the diversity, democracy, multilingualism, rich cultural heritage, age-old traditions, etc. But what are we making out of all that? Then, we have the Summer Olympics. A great coming-together of all nations, where countries like Cuba, North Korea (and probably Myanmar too) are not only competing but winning medals. Kudos to Abhinav Bindra for getting India its first individual gold. One solitary gold medal for a country of 1.1 billion. Well, its not about winning, one might say. But are we even competing in more than a handful sports? How does China create a fabulous opening ceremony like that AND rank on the top with almost 30 golds? Can India even imagine hosting an Olympic Games in the next 50 years?
posted by Ravi Ramaswamy at 7:54 AM
2 Comments:
You mean how does China fake an opening ceremony like that? Oh, I suppose they produce faked Olympic ceremonies just like they produce tires that burst while driving or baby formula that poisons and kills ... babies!
Oh, and India can produce gold medalists like China, except it may be a problem in a free country to confiscate children from their households, train them in a military manner depriving them of all aspects of their childhood, and falsify their age to get them entered into the Olympics.
I for one am sick of people talking about how great China is. Yes, India has many problems, but they are a fraction of China's.
Even the BSE Sensex, which has lost some 30% of its value this year, is dwarfed by the Shanghai Composite which has last more than 65% of its value this year and is barely 50% above its value from 5 years ago (the BSE is still more than 250% higher than where it was five years ago).
I think the point this write up is trying to make is that the government of India is getting more and more corrupt and not much is being done to further to provide relief from blatant evil activities of politicians.
I think female feticide, dowry deaths etc are just as bad as murdering children in China. Recently there was an article where 2 girls were stoned and beaten to death just for wishing two guys diwali. And unless the government spends more money in encouraging other sports other than cricket, we certainly won't win many medals.
I still maintain that the word democracy has started becoming meaningless in India in face of all the corruption.
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