This whole Sachin fracas is ridiculous

Sachin could have been given the award next year instead of now – it was so populist and uncharitable to be so charitable in minutes from when he left the field

bikram

Bikram Vohra | November 19, 2013



Get over it. Sachin Tendulkar never asked for it, okay. You want to give him the Bharat Ratna knock yourself out. But don't drag the guy through the mud. Stop comparing him to Bhagat Singh and Rabindranath Tagore, Homi Bhaba and a thousand other deserving Indians. That is gross. Not his fault.

The government showed haste. Not his fault.

The government wanted to score brownie points with the 1 billion Indians the government think tanks believe have two digit IQs, be my guest. Not his fault.

It was an election stunt the PM staggering up to the mike to announce the award 150 minutes after the post match revelry, not Sachin’s problem. Was it a dense and gratuitous move? Of course it was? It stank. Not his fault. Give it to Leander...still not his fault.

In a country where it has never been given to the Unknown Soldier and by that I mean all the men and women in the armed forces and the police who cheerfully have given up their todays for our tomorrows obviously it is obscene to compare hitting a ball with a bat. Off the top of my head have we ever honoured the Keelor brothers who took on Sabres with second generation Gnats and won the air battle? The cops who gave up their lives in the Mumbai hostage crisis. That’ll be the day.

That is apples and oranges, you don’t compare. The thousands of broken promises to the next of kin of our forces could fill more volumes than Paradise Lost...and paradise has been lost for a long time.

Tendulkar did what he could do and he did it with panache. Fine. If cricket and dying for your country for an enemy’s bullets or writing great poetry or being the quintessential freedom fighter or guiding India into the atomic age are all in the same park then Tendulkar is no less in his success ratio.

It is these clowns in government who messed up with their unholy haste. Sachin could have been given the award next year instead of now – it was so populist and uncharitable to be so charitable in minutes from when he left the field.

Now, in some crazy way he has to stand on this sticky wicket and defend an assault masquerading as an award. It is not fair to put him on the spot.

He did nothing to become a pawn in this grotesque chessboard but there he is on it stuck between this bunch of creeps who think they are smart.

Let me tell you something...Indians do not have two digit IQs and it is insulting to conclude they do. With one digit IQ in government decided to rain on Sachin’s parade by suggesting this would be the right time.

Comments

 

Other News

Gandhian movement after Gandhi failed: Ram Guha

The Gandhian movement in India, after Gandhi’s death, failed, says Ramachandra Guha, and blames Vinoba Bhave for it. But the movement found new, fertile grounds around the world and succeeded in bringing about a change in South Africa, the US and elsewhere. It is high time it returned home. Of cour

When religion, politics and Bollywood come together

Tavleen Singh, noted journalist and political commentator, has turned to fiction, with her debut novel ‘The Actor’ (HaperCollins India). Set in the near future, it has a superstar, Amit Singh, turning to politics, when the political landscape is dominated by prime minister Guru Gaynendraj

Cabinet approves setting up of Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority

The union cabinet, chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday approved the setting up of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), called Integrated Transport & Logistics Authority (ITLA), to strengthen research, planning, appraisal, monitoring and impact assessment within the broad domains of Transp

Why foundational literacy and numeracy is key to school education

Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) are often described as the building blocks of education. Yet, their significance goes well beyond a child’s ability to read a sentence, write a response or solve a basic mathematical problem. These foundational skills shape how children understand the world,

When police data becomes the algorithm

For decades, policing has followed a familiar sequence: a crime occurs, the police respond, an investigation produces records and those records become part of the institutional memory of the criminal justice system. Artificial intelligence is beginning to alter that sequence. Instead of merely recording

Before India voted, the framers worried about the referee

“We are making a Constitution forever and not only for today.” Shibban Lal Saksena said this in the Constituent Assembly on June 15, 1949. He was warning that a ruling party might one day choose a loyalist to run India’s elections. Seventy-seven years later, the Supreme Court is wrestli

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter