Truth Be Told, An India of Billion People Should Be Ashamed About PV Sindhu being ‘First Woman to clinch Silver’

 

“Starting an academy wasn’t easy. Though in 2003, the Andhra Pradesh government, as a token of appreciation for his All-England triumph in 2001, allotted five acres of land to Gopichand to build his academy, the onus of raising the Rs 13 crore he needed to set it up, was entirely on Gopi’s shoulders. The several corporate houses whom Gopi approached, hemmed and hawed, but did not pitch in. He had to finally mortgage his house to raise Rs 3 crore and industrialist Nimmagadda Prasad donated Rs 5 crore. A few smaller donations helped kickstart the project,” writes T S Sudhir, senior sports journalist in this NewsLaundry piece.

If you are Indian or know India then you will know it still better how things are run in this country. On Friday, every Indian probably who knew about Pusarla Venkata Sindhu aka PV Sindhu was praying for her to win gold. #SindhuForGold was trending top on twitter. Nation of billion people which otherwise was divided on umpteen issues was united in their prayers. It was their moment too. After all, that nation of billion was yet to clinch any medal just a day ago until Sakshi Malik won bronze. And now there was chance for Gold. Yes, a Gold medal.

 

Sindhu won first set but failed to get her mojo back in next two sets, and had to settle for Silver medal. But again, that was no mean feat either. She is first woman to clinch silver for India. First woman in the entire history of Olympics. I’m happy for Sindhu and everyone should be. Immensely thankful for her performance. But somewhere down also embarrassed when screens buzz time and again with “First woman to win silver for India”. That’s sad news. What took us this long to arrive here? And how long will it take an Indian athlete to bite gold at Olympics? Ask yourself this simple question, 

Had it not been for coach Pullela Gopichand and his private Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Gachibowli, Hyderabad, would Saina Nehwal who clinched Bronze in previous Olympic or Sindhu winning silver now, anywhere possible? 

I don’t see the remotest chance of it happening. But why? The answer lies in our approach towards sports. The larger problem apart from the parents who don’t see importance of sports lies in our system that lets sports-persons travel ‘economy’ class while authorities who travel alongside go ‘business’ class, lets players starve, where our Sports Minister is obsessed with his insane selfies and misspelled tweets. Will our government act against this evils that stop us from achieving laurels? We all know the answer. We all from top to lower order are happy with our congratulatory tweets and awards presented to achievers thereafter. 

Businessmen and rest have quickly lines up to award lavish cars and huge sums of money to PV Sindhu and Sakshi. They deserve all of it and more. But just imagine the talent that we would have nourished had that ‘help’ came before limelight that hogs their gesture now. Why should businessmen alone be blamed when our government is itself at fault? Which government in power has given importance to sports? We are a nation that doesn’t care if we have a Sports Minister or not. After all, why should one care? What does he know about sports? He is hardcore politician at heart. What stops us from appointing sports achievers as Sports Minister? ‘Politics’ is your answer! Otherwise, a Olympic medal winner Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore would have been our Sports Minister not Vijay Goel who has to be called out for his antics that cost us ire of Olympic authorities.

A country as big as ours, the nation that thumps its chest being largest democracy and dreams of being superpower doesn’t have world class academies that could nurture talent like Gopichand did. His academy is overflowing today. And people are still calling him to get enrolled. We want gold but we don’t want to invest in our athletes that will bring us that gold. Like election promises of our netas, this ‘you make us proud’ too will die down. Come tomorrow, its new day. We will forget this cringing questions and will move on to troll some new ‘celebrity’ seeking their day’s fame. Twitter is our battleground, our fingers our soldiers. 

Take pride in Sindhu, Saina, Sakshi, Dipa, Mary Kom, Bindra or Vijender Singh. But not in our system or nation. They have won because of their personal hunger, because of people like Gopichand. This system, this nation of billions has all but failed them at every step. Remember that in your each praise. Always.