London Olympics-2012 Opening Tonight!

The much awaited London Olympics-2012  starts tonight, the 27^th July with a grand opening ceremony planned in some amount of secrecy by the celebrated filmmaker Danny Boyle (famous in India for his controversial and yet Oscar winning movie The Slumdog Millionaire). But in India the Olympics would actually start in the wee hours tomorrow, the 28^thof July. After a series of controversies concerning sponsorship, concerning India and concerning serious security issues the once-in-four-year mega World Event is finally going to unfold in all its grandeur.

India is very big country, but its presence in the Olympics has always been little—in terms of medals won particularly Gold medals. This is unfortunate and is mainly the result of a commercial approach to sports with sponsors coming  forward to put money in only money-spinning games like cricket. The government’s policy has been lukewarm too with a lot of former or promising athletes rotting in uninhabitable environs or in unthinkable jobs. This time India has sent the largest contingent ever (83 athletes) to London Olympics, but the medal hopes have not increased in a proportionate way. In all, 11,000 athletes from 204 nations will be competing for honors in 39 disciplines.

In London Olympics-2012 the Indian medal hopes mainly emanate from Archery, Shooting, Wrestling, Boxing and Badminton only, though India is participating in 13 disciplines. Narsingh Yadav is a gold medal hope in 74kg freestyle wrestling. He is the son of a milkman in Mumbai slums. He had already won gold medals in the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in 2010. And, he continues to live in the slums, though people here want him to make Mumbai proud! As per the latest news the Government of Maharashtra had offered him an officer’s job in the state police services.

In India’s national game Hockey, it is yes-yes and no-no depending on the mercurial team’s  performances on the particular days. In Tennis, you never know. Indian Tennis stars had recently proved their expertise in petty egoistic fights only. Some people hope for medals from the Bhupathy-Bopanna pair in men’s doubles though they crashed out unceremoniously in the Wimbledon-2012. Some pin their hopes on the Leander-Sania pair in mixed doubles. 

More Indian medals would certainly make the Indian fans happy, but the grand spectacle of the Olympics is set to regale one and all just for the sheer excellence of it. People across the country will be able to enjoy the London Olympics-2012 on the national channel of Doordarshan. 

 

Assam Violence: The Dynamics Of Continuity!

Assam is burning. Widespread ethnic violence for the last three days has 38 people killed, over 200,000 people fleeing from homes to 150 relief camps and 500 villages abandoned. This is the inevitable outcome of a continuous process of neglect, political mismanagement and brutalization making such violence occur again and again in a land that was so serenely beautiful with peace loving simple and hospitable people. The root cause being the unchecked infiltration from Bangladesh since decades.

Assam has been like another India within India with its tremendous diversity in terms of ethnicity, culture, language and religion. During British rule Assam was a bigger state along with the princely states of Manipur and Tripura to constitute the full North Eastern region of India. After independence states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram were formed out of Assam due to ethnic distinction and self assertion. But even the reduced Assam managed to still retain much of its diversity with numerous hill and plains tribes and the larger Assamese people of the Brahmaputra river valley.

The neglect syndrome started right after Independence with the central government of India failing to recognize the realities. Mismanagement at the local level by the state governments made the situation worse. The tribal chunks of population felt alienated and neglected. The first incident of tribal self assertion was by the Bodos—the largest plains tribe of Assam—who demanded a separate state as far back as in 1967.

The infiltration from Bangladeshhad its origins during the British rule when that region was not a foreign country and therefore its people had been welcomed into Assam. They started living in areas and started doing jobs that were unthinkable for largely white collar Assamese community. The concept of large vote banks originated from that time.

With local governments firmly in power after Independence the influx of foreign nationals went on unabated thanks to a lack of foresight of the selfish politicians. They needed the illegal immigrants to vote them back to power again and again. Things came to a head when 45,000 names of illegal migrants were discovered in the voters’ list of a single assembly constituency in 1978. The Assam Agitation started in 1979 as a knee-jerk reaction by the larger Assamese community and it raged on till the Assam Accord was signed in 1985.

The varied ethnic groups now felt threatened on two counts—the unchecked infiltration already creating economic pressures, and the increasing domination of the agitating Assamese community. Almost every tribal group began asserting their right to self determination and existence. While the Assam agitation led to the growth of an extremist wing wanting Assam separated from India the tribal groups too started countering it with their terror outfits. The situation became volatile and extremely complex.

But one solution that could have helped all distinctive communities was stopping infiltration from Bangladesh. Despite promises made in the Assam Accord to deport post-1971 foreign nationals and sealing the border with fences nothing happened over the years. Even the students-led government that came to power in Assam in 1985 concentrated on making capital out of it and never tried hard enough to solve the crisis for which they started the agitation. So far only some parts of the India-Bangladesh border have been fenced, but the waterways remain as free as ever.

The full demography of a diverse Assam changed. One more irony was that the infiltrators belonged to main religions of Assam and they also spoke an Indian language. Therefore, the infiltrators freely mixed with local population and it became impossible to identify who was who. Suspicions on legal citizens created more insecurity and minority groups too started forming along with their extremist outfits.

During our studying days in Delhi University the Assam agitation was at its peak. We had an association of Assamese students there and used to carry out protest demonstrations and to meet prominent political leaders to make them understand the reality. Since those times we have been telling our fellow Indians that Assam is against only foreigners and not Indians, and that the agitation is never communal. Even today in our society in Assam there is perfect communal harmony and it is difficult to distinguish us by religion. 

Why Assam is burning now is not due to communal tension, it is due to economic pressures, land disputes, feelings of insecurity and even existential uncertainties. Like on earlier occasions a land dispute led to the riots that are raging even now. Vested interests like motivated politicians, local and cross border terror outfits and self-centered leaders could definitely be the other fueling agents.

The political, economic, social and cultural degeneration of Assam seems to be heading for the ultimate disaster. The future of Assam is at stake. Acton must be taken once and for all…now! Wisdom can no longer afford to be incident specific. One cannot just afford to wait for the next catastrophe.

Assam is burning, Assam is bleeding. Assam is cut off from the rest of India for the last two days. Save Assam. NOW!  

Micromax Cup Cricket: Sri Lanka Thrash India In Second ODI!

Indian cricket tour of Sri Lanka-2012. The same venue of Hambantota like in the first one day international that Indiawon by 21 runs following a powerful batting display. Only the strip was different and Indian skipper Dhoni happened to see some more grass there, and that a strong wind was blowing. But Lankan skipper Mahela said it was dead grass, but, of course, wind was unusual in that venue. Again, a same day and night affair like in the first.

The same result in the toss—Indiawinning. The same decision—to bat first. And, the same team, no changes. But for a change the Indian innings began well today. They had a brisk start scoring 31 runs under 4 overs with Gambhir and Sehwag going strong. Then, it was entirely a different tale to tell.  

Virender Sehwag started the slide giving a fierce Perera his first wicket. It was a downhill journey then onwards. Classy Virat Kohli fell to Perera for just 1 in the sixth over. Rohit Sharma who failed in the first ODI too was the third to go in the 7^thover bowled by Matthews for a duck. Raina joined in the hara-kiri by getting out to Perera in the 8^th over. India were reduced to 41/4 with Perera capturing three wickets for just 15 runs in six overs.

Skipper Dhoni was expected to try steadying the innings as Gautam Gambhir was holding fort in the other end. But that was not to be. Dhoni was removed by Matthews pretty soon. With some rearguard action by R Ashwin (21 run out) Gambhir managed to take the score to 138 when he was the last man out for 65—the highest score of the innings. Indiawere bowled out for 138 in 33.3 overs. It was one of the numerous unpredictable batting collapses for a team supposedly having the strongest batting lineup of the world. For Sri Lanka Perera and Matthews took three wickets each while Malinga chipped in late with two wickets including that of Gambhir. Ominously for India, the last wicket fell in the first over of the batting powerplay—an area of constant concern.

A target of 139 runs in full quota of fifty overs for a strong team like Sri Lanka at home was farthest from a respectable one. It was not a good target even for a T20 game! The Sri Lankan innings started after the usual 10 minute break as it was early days for dinner. They started confidently and headed for a professional finish. The Indian bowlers had a task cut out for them.

The agony for Indiawas mercifully over as early as in the 20^th over. The Indian bowlers seemed to have just completed the formality of delivering the balls, giving away as many as 24 extras. Openers Tharanga (59 not out) and Dilshan (50) almost did the job and Sri Lanka won by 9 wickets. TC Perera was adjudged the man of the match. It was a magnificent victory for Sri Lanka who outplayed India in all departments of the game. Indiasuffered a humiliation today and questions are likely to be raised again on Dhoni’s persistence with Rohit Sharma with Ajinkya Rahane and Manoj Tiwary sitting in the reserves. Indiacannot hope to regain the No.1 position in ICC rankings in this series either, because for that they needed to win 5-0. The Scorecard:

The scores are level at 1-1 in the five match ODI series and the competition is set to get keener. The third one day international is coming up on July 28 in Colombo.