This is the entire text of a letter I had sent to The Telegraph, Kolkata, on 13 Aug. Predictably, it wasn't published. No one loves a spoil-sport, especially when a nation of a billion people is busy basking in the glory of a 25 year old young man.
India is a-buzz with the wonderous achievment of Abhinav Bindra, without realising perhaps, that the country had little to do with it!
By the look of it, it was a brilliant individual effort backed by papa's considerable wealth. Rifle shooting is an elitist sports and even if India manages to produce gold-medal winners by the dozen in that particular sports, it will not make us a great sporting nation. An impoverished country like ours ( inspite of globalisation and Cognizant or Macdonald's opening shop all over) cannot afford to pump in the tax-payers money into grooming an individual, practising a rich-man's sports, to fulfill a nation's dreams. Such pursuits should be left to the affluent, with the govt. backing up only in sectors beyond the purview of individuals. The tax-payers money should be spent on grooming atheletes and team sportspersons. To put things in proper perspective, without taking anything away from Abhinav's truly great achievment, we as a nation, must realise that his is an 'individual' gold if there was one.
I now quote from Abhinav's interview published in The Telegraph on 21st. Aug.
" In terms of equipment, a very basic range(for one point) may not cost more than Rs.25 - 30 lakhs....Yes I've been very lucky to have been born into this family".
Thank you Abhinav for being so candid! You are a nice guy and no wonder you finished first!
uday
No comments:
Post a Comment