Hypocrisy thy name is Indian politics - Part 1

Nationalism and Patriotism are a source of identity to a lot of people across cultural landscapes in the world. We all like to associate ourselves with a social group of which we feel extremely proud of. Be it calling oneself a proud Tamizhan or Indian or Socialist or Gandhian. Such an identity gives a sense of direction to our life, meaning, we tend to align life with what this identity demands. The worrisome part about these identities is that we sometimes blindly authorize the action of anybody who is a part of this grouping. The reason being you can't just question a group's action and be apart of the group. That is the level of hypocrisy that even the most liberal of the liberals exhibit in the highly nascent political environment of India. This is also the kind of hypocrisy that we have been seeing off-late in the JNU episode.

To make few things clear, Firstly any action that jeopardizes the national integrity, peace and security shall be treated as a crime. However there needs to be a liberal interpretation while classifying such actions. Whether all such actions amount to sedition is a legal question of constitutional nature. When the state exercises its powers to preserve the national interests larger ideals like humanism and internationalism should take precedence.

In the recent event leading up to the JNU crisis the acts of certain politicians in the name of nationalism is more jingoistic than patriotic. Calling students anti-nationals for mere "alleged sloganeering" is dangerous to the nation. Equally dangerous is the justification of such sloganeering by the student fraternity in the veil of "freedom of expression". Both the parties should understand that while freedom is fundamental it is also qualified and not absolute. The state and the civil society should treat the issue with greater common sense and responsibility.

Coming to the hypocrisy part of it. The swiftness with which the state reacted is a surprise. The state does not act with similar vigor when it comes to right-wing fundamentalism and moreover saffronization has been a part of its agenda. Both fundamentalism and saffronization are equally detrimental to national interest. Also the left liberals don't question the excesses in the garb of freedom of expression or extremism of their ideological forefathers, nor that of their ideological guardians in the north or brothers within India. Except for very few left inclined liberals who have given a balanced critique of the JNU crisis rest have only used the situation to score vital electoral points.

Repeated events of this nature just months ahead of state assembly elections is only bringing to limelight a very dangerous political culture. Who is the culprit ? The ruling dispensation or the United opposition is hard to decipher purely because both parties exhibit hypocrisy of unforgivable dimensions. Media which has to be the watchdog of the political culture has only managed to successfully make the most of this crisis. Common man is as usual the one who is left in peril.   

Moral support to a convict - The ethical question!

 Bollywood's support for Salman Khan hasn't surprised me. To 'some extent' it is only a sign of the well established hypocrisy of human beings. But, there may be few questions to be answered before one starts the bollywood bashing.
 First of them being, how dare someone support a convict? The answer is simple. Justifying the criminal act of Salman Khan, blaming the poor people sleeping on the footpath and calling the government solely responsible for the accident are completely insane. Yet expressing solidarity to a person whom you know very well, so that he copes up with the punishment in the right sense so as to evolve into a better human is completely sane. It is important for a liberal judicial environment to assist in moral and spiritual transformation of convicted persons. You and me being part of this environment should stop convict bashing and character assassination. It is also our duty not to hinder any positive move by others in the environment. So, meeting Salman Khan personally and extending a moral support or tweeting and praying for Salman Khan are completely within the limits of ethical behavior.
 Second, where does one draw the line between this ethical behavior and contempt of court? I would like to recall that when the Ex-CM of TN was convicted on graft charges, a famous Tamil movie star wrote a personal letter to her wishing her good health to overcome this phase of her life. This is what i would call as expressing solidarity without contempt of court. In this regard i'm completely with the fans and celebrities expressing moral support to Salman Khan the Human being they know. To understand this i think we need a bit of empathy. Imagine a person in your household committing a crime under certain circumstances. Would you want the court to hang them straight away or wish they get a second chance to lead a more useful life? If your answer is the latter, yes you deserve a place in a liberal democracy.
 Are Salman's acts of philanthropy a sufficient condition to guarantee him special treatment as many request? Certainly not. That would set a wrong precedent in a country like India where the faith in judiciary and democracy itself are getting weaker day-by-day.
 One has to understand that the same kind of moral support (only to the extent of helping the person reform himself and evolve into a better human) has to be indefinitely expressed with all convicts. Only then will our society evolve into a better one for human life. It might sound Utopian for many people. But aren't all our expectations for the world around us are Utopian and idealistic. You expect a corruption free governance, a rape free society, a world full of sensible and morally correct human beings, clean environment and only happiness. By nature we all are Utopian when it comes to asking others to change. When it comes to us we tend to become more practical.
 What salman did was wrong and he deserves the prescribed punishment. But the society should neither kill the human inside salman nor the souls of already dead victims. Let us help the convict and victims both overcome the horror of that night and lead a better life.

India 4-0! Yet, tougher task ahead.

Team India's clinical wins in their first 3 WC league matches instilled great confidence in me. Yet, I hold the win over WI in the 4th match as a more important one compared to the other three. In a long tournament and an unevenly spaced game itinerary it is important that the right kind of stimuli is given to the team at proper intervals so that the team stays conscious. The WI encounter at Perth provided the much needed stimuli to test how Indians hold their nerves. While the second half of WI batting would help the team reestablish its faith on sticking to the basics of bowling, the entire Indian chase would be the barometer of India's capability to handle pressure in difficult playing conditions.

One of the most important turnarounds in the tournament has been the way Pakistan have identified the fire in them. The other worrying factor for the team and the fans is the nearly unstoppable Sri Lankan top order. With all of India's Knockout games most likely to be played at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, which have seen some of the biggest run fests of the tournament, it is critical that Indians are at their best in all the remaining games to come. It is in the context that the alarm raised during the encounter with W.Indies holds significance. It should have shattered any complacence within the dressing room.

Though India emerged victorious on Friday the 6th of March, it was more about the team that made the least number of mistakes than the one that played the best cricket. The game exposed India's lack of adept lower middle order, which heavily rests on just one man. One among Ashwin and Jadeja need to play a bit more sensibly, driven by circumstances and SWOT analysis rather than instincts.

From my childhood I've felt that there are two indisputable determinants of the outcome of a game of cricket. One is the number of catches a team takes and the other the number of run-outs it concedes. While we all know that 'catches win matches', we rarely notice that on any given day the side that concedes the maximum number of run-outs is most likely to lose.

If India is to go on and defend its title it should not commit the same mistakes again and keenly analyse the strengths and weaknesses of its possible opponents in the knockouts without ruling out any team. For that the team should take the W.Indies match as the alarm to stay awake and be aware.

Sports - A paradox!

   

     I love sports. I've played almost all sports for which my school PET room had equipment for. Like many i hate losing. So i cheated quite a few times so that i slept happily that night thinking i played better than others. As years passed i started taking wins and loses more or less equally. I started having more peaceful sleeps thinking that i exhibited better sportsmanship that day. It was then i started questioning why we play a sport. More accurately why would have humans invented sports.
     I was able to arrive at two probable reasons. One that man wanted to wile away time in a more interesting fashion. The other that man wanted to satisfy his Egoes without much of a blood shed. The second more or less goes to express a continuity with the way today's society treats sports. Most of us today love sports because its a more peaceful way of quenching ones animal instincts engulfed by ego. Probable that is why some of the widely followed sports are all about power, hitting hard, smashing and the likes.When India beats Pakistan in cricket we tend to take it as a victory in a battlefield. There have been many days when i couldn't sleep properly because India lost a match that day. But we have given sports a more elegant and Utopian picture. We have coined a term called "Sportsmanship". We try to portray sports as something which is beyond hatred. To our knowledge we treat sports as being the human activity closest to humanity (Probably that is why we have been banning a few sports terming them inhuman).
    This to me looks like a paradox. On the one hand we attribute all positive human emotions as the basis of sports. On the other each one of us including the sportsmen treat it like a war most of the times. The paradox according to me hasn't benefited sports or the society as such. Nevertheless it has great commercial value. I strongly believe that using sports as peaceful medium of exhibiting hatred is doing more bad to our civilization than good.
     Such a treatment of sports some may say is a vent for human emotions. A stress buster. While i agree with that, It can only be a temporary fix. Its like a stressed man getting relief from smoking cigar or consuming alcohol. The sooner we relieve ourselves from its clutches and start using it for the real betterment of the human community as such the better its is for the survival of the both. I strongly believe that the civilization lives only as long as sports breeds true sportsmanship not only among the players but also among the audience. Long live true sporting spirit. Long live the civilization.

Dhoni - Just a cricketer! Nothing more, nothing less. Part-2

On September 15th around 4:30pm IST nerves of Indians across the world just relaxed as everyone rejoiced the Indian team's victory over arch-rivals Pakistan in their first CWC 2015 Pool-B encounter. When everybody had a sigh of relief over India's 6-0 record against Pakistan there seemed to be one man who approached this game beyond those statistical numbers. MS Dhoni in his words had said,

"The record is good, but it is something that I don't want to get into because there will come a time when we will lose, irrespective of whether it happens this World Cup, next World Cup or four World Cups down the line. It is not something that will stay until the world exists. No point in really thinking about it".

True to my perception of his sporting character MSD had the genuineness of  accepting that records aren't going to stay forever. I believe his approach to the high voltage encounter would have had considerable influence on the team's temperament as well. He might have not been the star performer for the team on that particular day, but his presence and attitude would have instilled self belief and calmness in the minds of his team mates. While aggression and aggressive cricketers are constantly hailed to be the need of the hour, MSD constantly reminds us that aggression and composure can always go hand in hand.

In an era when sport is treated like war. An age when people quench their egos through sports. There are sportsmen beyond these. There are cricketers who treat sport as sport. The attitude of MSD is a tribute to the true spirit of sportsmanship.

Indian WC 2015 Team and the chances!

 

     January 6, 2015, the senior selection committee selected the 15 member squad for India's quest to defend it's world champions title down under. Like any team selection this one raised several eyebrows. I feel any critic needs to be as much factual and logical as possible to understand the nuances of this selection, especially in the context of cricket filling an emotional void in every household. I feel that the team selection couldn't have been better except for a few glitches.
     Firstly, the mix of batsmen, bowlers, all-rounders and variety there in has been decent. With three spinner all-rounders, one medium pace all-rounder and 4 pace bowlers the bowling department looks decent. Except for the fact that the pace bowlers lack variety in them, in the context of Bhuvaneshwar not getting much swing in Australian wickets. A left arm bowler could have been a trump-card given the vastly right-handed batsmen across all teams. But India's pace worries aren't new.
     Secondly, the batting department cannot look better than this to me. However, considering Ambati Rayudu as the only Wicket-keeper replacement to Dhoni might worry a lot of people. Stuart Binny and One of the Spinners should come good when it matters. While a lot of people want Yuvraj singh to be back in the side, everybody's now waiting for the final fitness test for 4 injured Indian player on February 7th. Yuvraj has not been good enough in neither Australia nor NZ as he merely averages 30(18 matches) and 21(12 matches) respectively. With his last 19 disappointing ODI performances (Avg 18+) and 1 year break from ODI cricket standing between his excellent First-class show in the last 1 month and his selection, almost every Indian wants one of the 4 players to test negative giving space for the 2011 CWC Man of the tournament. Fingers Crossed!
    Thirdly, Indian Opening vows is still troubling our team's performance as a whole. While Rahane's numbers in the past 16 months are not so encouraging his extraordinary adaptation to varied oversees condition holds the key. While Shikar Dhawan's 16 month numbers are emphatic he has struggled in Australia over the last 2 months. Rohit Sharma's inconsistency and fitness add further insult to injury. From past experiences of ODI cricket down under it can be seen that the difference between the winning and losing team has been not losing important wickets early on in the innings. May it be the 2015 Carlton-Mid triangular or the CB series of 2008 the winners have been those which have been patient in the initial and middle overs. I'm sure that most of the Australian and NZ wickets get better to bat as the innings progresses unlike most of the sub-continent wickets.
     There is definitely a lot of pressure on team India. But a moral booster is that indefinitely all teams except the host have struggled in Australia and NZ. The recent dumping of SL, WI, Pak in NZ and that of England in Australia against Australia is an evidence. What India has to keep in mind is the NRR and not taking the minnows too easily. Such an approach will take India to the Knock-outs where every team will have its own problems and the team which keeps its cool will emerge winners more often than not.
     Hope Dhoni's men can repeat a CB series 2008 and a CWC 2011 down under. #won'tgiveitback

Dhoni - Just a cricketer! Nothing more, nothing less. Part-1

   
   

     The first of many posts to discuss the cricketing career of one of the most controversial Indian cricket superstars M S Dhoni. The reason is that in India everybody is a cricket critic. That is good in some ways because you get to assess the society at large every time people open their mouth. While Dhoni has been fortunate in many ways I feel the criticisms on Dhoni have been grossly prejudicial. Hence, Dhoni is perceived to have two faces. Dhoni the martyr and dhoni the traitor. This write up will pertain to his not so popular test career, his decisions and the evolution of Indian test team in the last 4-5 years.

     The latest decision of Dhoni to quit test cricket with one match left in an already decided series has drawn a flay of criticisms. Why was it the perfect time to bid goodbye?
1. Dhoni had stated in 2011-12, after the 8-0 loss that, he would consider relinquishing captaincy after the 2015 WC.
2. With the series decided by virtue of the drawn 3rd test the best thing Dhoni could have done was to play under Kohli in the last match to give Kohli another valuable overseas captaincy experience. Even better would have been to give a chance to another keeper batsman. Which is what he did by quitting test cricket all together.
3. Dhoni's role in the team was as much a captain as that of a keeper-batsman. When he decided to stop captaining the Test team he would have continued to play only if he had felt that he would do justice to the team as a pure keeper-batsman. Which obviously he can't hence the decision.
4. Deciding when to play and when to stop is ultimately his call. Dhoni has no reason to prove his sportsmanship by symbolically playing under Kohli, when what he actually wants is to stop playing test cricket, which has not been his cup of tea for quite some time.
     There is no such thing like lack of fighting spirit here.  Because it was his very fighting spirit that kept him hanging to his captaincy job in tests taking all the blame to himself and letting other youngsters focus on more important aspects of their own game than team building.

     When people readily question Dhoni's integrity and sportsmanship with regards to the manner of his retirement one has to remember that it is very easy to attribute intentions to actions. Sachin Tendulkar retired from Test matches with a farewell test series. In this context, how insane would it be to say that Sachin personally wanted an extravagant farewell and that is why he played that last pointless home series against a tainted West Indies side? Though it would be easy to draw coherence between the facts and events, it would be foolish right? We need to understand that attributing ulterior motives to Dhoni's test retirement is as foolish as this Sachin example.

    While, whether he should have played test cricket this long or whether he was a good test captain or whether his technique suited test cricket is totally a different debate. As fans of a wonderful sport the best thing we could do is to respect a sportsman's decision.