Democracy: The Raped Prostitute

Don’t be surprised by the subject of this article. Have thought hard to put it more subtly than this – but just could not. It is thanks to our actions (historically as well as in my own life time) that I am forced to look back and relate completely to the aforementioned topic.

Democracy is today the most used word in the world – in fact to the extent of the political leaders being overtly obsessive about it. As we step into another year of our nation’s journey – it will be prudent for all of us to understand the significance of this oft-repeated word, lest we fall prey to the interpretations derived out of various twisted forms of democracy demonstrated around the world, and lest we miss the acknowledged values that democracy entails.  

Democracy as defined in the dictionary: "<Democracy> is a government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system." In words of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Democracy however is regularly confused with “freedom”. Though they are intertwined – Democracy at best can be termed as “institutionalization of Freedom”. They are not synonyms of each other by any means. Democracy is indeed a set of ideas and principles “about” freedom, but it also consists of a set of practices and procedures that have been molded through a long, often tortuous history. Hence, it can easily be said that Democracy is meant to make people feel free BUT bound by set of laws defined by society as a whole or by the elected representatives.

Democracy also means making decisions by majority acceptance. But it should be remembered that a mere 51% majority on issues may not necessarily be democratic too as it will mean subversion of the other 49% who are in minority. A true democracy entails majority preferences with effective safeguards for minority component. Unless that is achieved in all the cases – a democratic setup moves into the authoritarian/totalitarian domain, which is where the trouble starts.

Going further, Democracies fall into two basic categories, direct and representative. In a direct democracy, all citizens, without the intermediary of elected or appointed officials, can participate in making public decisions. In Representative democracy however (which is the common form of democratic governance followed today), citizens elect officials to make political decisions, formulate laws, and administer programs for the public good. In the name of the people, such officials can deliberate on complex public issues in a thoughtful and systematic manner, that requires an investment of time and energy, which is often impractical for the vast majority of private citizens to devote.

I must add that Democracy in its own definition needs also be interpreted individually by general masses and the elected representatives. As indicated above, Democracy is a form of independence woven over by lawful boundaries. Any act by citizens of a democratic setup outside such lawfully restricted domains would, and should, constitute punishment of the severest kind. It has been observed off-late however, that the lawmakers in today’s world tend to make such laws that suit their own personal purposes in the name of the good of the larger society. This then means that if a Parliament/legislative council (of a nation) has majority of people who have criminal cases against them – they would want a law to protect themselves from getting arrested by the police/ law enforcement agencies while they are active legislatures or members of parliament and perhaps even when they are not.  That would be logical. The question to be asked then is – will that come under the ambit of true democratic form of governance?

Democracy was not meant to be a tool to serve the elite. It was meant to serve, and form the basis of governance of the society that includes poorest of the poor and also the elite. The moment it neglects any one sect of the society – the form of governance cannot be termed as democratic. However, that unfortunately has been the case in almost all the nations that term themselves democracies. Thanks to the elitist political class who have used it in every conceivable shameful way as they felt. It is not as if democracy has become the bed-mate of such elected scoundrels only in recent times – it has been used loosely for generations by all the nations that have ever called themselves democratic. Even Romans, who claimed to be the first amongst the homo-sapiens to use democratic form of governance, never truly had it implemented in its purest form. The nation was subservient to the whims and fancies of Caesar and is a well known fact. I mean, did the assembly of legislatures have the practical power to go against or replace Caesar? Don’t think so. Unless of-course they would come up with a Brutus every time they wanted to do that! Such form of rule, for me, does not fit into the principles of democracy. Even Stalin and Hitler would then claim to run a democratic setup. Thank you very much. But both Romans and Nazis claimed to run a democratic country! The point I am trying to make here is that historically, this way of governance (that we today know as democracy), has been used in various forms – by various leaderships – to meet their own dubious ends and their typically non-pluralistic pleasures. But whether any nation and its citizens have really implemented the laws of democracy in real earnest – so as to allow the benefit of the system to reach even the lower strata of the society? The answer to that is pretty clear, an emphatic NO. And that has not happened simply because the leadership across all generations has never risen beyond its own pity needs. Democracy in fact is a dream we are made to chase – and chase we do.

That democracy has remained alive and active in any form today is thanks to its capacity to take all the positives from every bad experience it has had and make itself into a more compact option. That there is no end to the torture for Democracy is evident even today – when all the democratic countries continue to twist it, mould it and then use it in the form and shape they want – rather than honoring the laudable concept of higher values that Democracy represents.

Let us not forget, Democracy’s key elements include safeguarding human rights, freedom of speech and opinion, religious liberty, equality in all forms of life, apart from the right to vote etc. These are but the governing principles. Having said that, look around you – people indulge in any and every kind of “generally-perceived” unlawful activities like arson, disruption of peace, hooliganism (considered lawful, by the principal actors in such acts) and tend to justify them by quoting the freedom of expression clauses of democracy. That the lives of others get disturbed temporarily or permanently is none of their concern. The law, here, is interpreted the way these people want to see, rather than what it is. Huh. Another sad example is of a painter who indulges in making objectionable paintings of gods/goddesses full of nudity. There are people who tend to defend his/her action as part of the constitutional democratic right of freedom of expression! Is this not a betrayal of trust that a democratic nation puts on its citizens allowing them the liberty of expression? Is this not a breach of the boundaries set by democratic principles? I mean, isn’t democracy also about respecting the views, lives and sensitivities of other human beings? Here I must equally condemn the deplorable and punishable act of violent protestors, the representatives of the “sane” society and the so called protectors of faith, who go on a rampage damaging property and lives while protesting against such objectionable paintings. If displaying God in nude form is outrageous – it is criminal for the people, whose sentiments get hurt, to take law in their own hands. This is not the democracy that I have grown up to live in. And I am ashamed of both the forms of breach of trust.

Democracy allows display of dissent or displeasure, but again, under certain guidelines. For anyone breaching the guidelines and justifying the same as permissible under “democracy” and freedom of expression needs to be put behind the “authoritarian” jails. A hard taught lesson on the right form of democratic discipline within the jail’s parameters would serve such rascals right.

And perhaps the most telling representation of how democracy is infringed and ravaged is seen in the way our “constitutionally” defined “Democratic India” works. The way democracy is designed in India – we are “made to feel” democratic only once in (every) 5 years – i.e. when we are asked to elect one of the many “lovable” candidates to “represent us” in the House of Parliament. We too use our democratic right regularly with all fervor, in these intermittent periods. We are made to feel all important during the whole exercise of elections. Democracy as a word gets used/ abused/molested in every conceivable way in the process by these candidates to somehow coerce us to come out and vote for them.  The reality only dawns on us, once one of the scalawags/scumbags (??) gets elected. As many of us have seen for years now - the drama only just begins. I have to bring in a quote by George Bernard Shaw here, who is at his sarcastic best when he says - Democracy is a system ensuring that the people are governed no better than they deserve. We in India can relate to this I am sure – and all because we use the democratic “germ” within us in one emotive moment every 5 years. Wallah.

These democratically elected representatives then reach the Parliament/ legislative Councils carrying our expectations on their shoulders. Or so we think. It is only then that they show their true colors. They convert themselves almost immediately from a democratically aligned leader to a totally “authoritarian” one. The ones we thought were our representatives start behaving like our masters. They then go on to ram and shove every conceivable democratic notion that you and I may have had till then. They make and support laws that defy the very democratic principles that we believed our constitution guarded against.

Since democracy is almost mostly confused with Freedom – these elected crooks of the today’s society exploit the norms of freedom without any remorse day after day. They start becoming laws unto themselves and when the barriers of principles of Democracy become hindrance – they do not hesitate in using their might to crush the tenets to the benefit of their own desires. I am forced to think back at something that I was told some years back – “When it becomes clear that our "representatives" don't represent the public, the foundations of democracy are in peril”. I guess it summarizes our situation pretty aptly.

Today my friends – as we celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the foundation of our free and democratic country – we cannot but look back both, with satisfaction (for all the good things that have happened in the short journey), and indeed a lot of pain at how the representative form of governance has turned into a blot in the process of implementation of true freedom. A form of governance that should have given the millions of people the power to make laws for their well being – has been constantly mauled and raped (literally) by the same selected few who were supposed to ensure its applicability.

Perhaps the last words should go to Winston Churchill who said “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except, all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”.  As true as this may sound – this anniversary of India’s Independence Day (when India moves into the “Senor Citizen” band) is the right time for all of us to think ahead and perhaps find a way to stop the continuous exploitation of freedom that we are fortunately bestowed with. Time has indeed come to redefine our responsibilities and stop ourselves from forcibly breaking the already broadened fort of this noble form of governance that we call - Democracy.

Think about it.

Mantosh Singh..

14^th Aug 2007’

Me, My Wife and the lost Moments

The house does not rest upon a ground – but on woman of the house. (Mexican proverb)

As true as the above statement is, we tend to ignore its significance nevertheless. Adult life is such that we spend innumerable number of hours working for our organizations. We then go home, have our meals and hit the sack – snoring to glory. The monotonous cycle repeats the next day and then the next, and then the next… We work like bull, eat like there never will be tomorrow, watch News on television as if our lives were dependent on it, and then sleep as if we were deprived of it till that moment! We are so busy with ourselves and our routines that other members of the society, and indeed the family, generally don’t get as much attention from us as perhaps is required. And that my friends’ forms the basis of my contention in this article and I wish to draw your attention to this serious aspect of our passing life.

Family and home are integral part of our lives. We feel safe when we are at home and feel comfortable when we are with our family. However, we do take each of these for granted at our own ultimate peril, I must say. It is one fine day, when things go haywire between the family members and yourselves that you wake up to the reality. You suddenly realize, to your surprise, that there are bunch of issues that have cropped up from nowhere. And the rifts are so deep that it just does not make sense to us. We feel disappointed and… and wonder why? I mean, after all, we have been working hard and providing all that we can for our family. Haven’t we? We have been honest and truthful to them and have never taken any step that, we feel, should disappoint the family. Then why… why so many issues? What more does our family want, we wonder? We grope around for answers, but find none.

Well that’s the whole point of this article. It is just an attempt from my end to perhaps make you realize that we indeed need to do more today – to avoid looking for answers later. We really need to spare more time for our family, for our wife and children today – to spare us any heart breaks tomorrow. We perhaps need to go out of our way to make our family feel a part of our “own-selves” and… belonged.

Kindly note: For the purpose of this article – I shall not delve into the time we spend with our Parents. That part of the story is all too depressing (especially for “migrant” children like us – who are unfortunate to be living away from our Parents) and hence will keep that part of stats for some other time and some other article. I have always felt, for all that they do for us, we can never come close to doing justice with them (in the time we spend and devote to them). But yes, I shall definitely talk and concentrate on the time we devote to our other part of family and specifically the time spent with the “better half”.

Life, we know, changes after marriage. Overnight a person suddenly becomes a part of you, and your life. Your perceptions about life take a dramatic “U-turn”. You suddenly start “planning” your future in all earnest. The day of careless living becomes passé. Your dreams suddenly are filled with thoughts of your future with your wife. The “I” in our life very smoothly shifts into the “We” gear, if you know what I mean. We try and work even harder to fulfill all the lofty dreams that we see together with our partners in life. Life suddenly becomes more purposeful and interesting.

Somewhere down the line though, in our zest to extract more out of life, we end up spending lesser and lesser time with the one who perhaps has been the inspiration to our dreams. Such prolonged “neglect” of the family (read “spouse”) ultimately leads to cracks in the very fabric of the bond that we “thought” got made the day we put the sacred Mangalsutra around our spouses’. It is my belief that we tend to settle down in the relationship and start taking our spouses flippantly and get obsessed with thoughts of professional progression, promotion, ways of minting money, buying a car, a house etc. The priorities change and life for us turns more materialistic. In the pursuit of such materialistic individual happiness – the relevance of the relationship formed out of marriage is all but lost. Sadly so.

I must confess, it is in the periods of me being alone during my official tours and/or when my wife was away for her holidays (visiting her Parents place), that I first started thinking about the “lost moments”. In these periods, of me being alone at home, I have cursed myself for not caring enough for the person who today matters the most to me. The lack of quality time I spend with my wife (when she is with me) keeps nagging me even today. And every time I look back at the lost opportunities/moments – I get into another bout of depression and frustration.

It was some couple of years back (in one of the many official tours I was making in those times) – I ended up collating some data that I am presenting to you today. I had conveniently forgotten about the same till I felt the need to revisit it the last time my wife went away on her holidays. To my utter disappointment – I did find the stats to be relevant even now – in fact more so now. I am sure you too will be able to connect to the stats presented here.

Kindly note, however hard I tried to place the figures in various slots (to brighten up the scenario!) – I ended up with more or less the same end result. I have tried to take the most sanguine scenario and I hope you will find them realistic in your cases too. The first table shows the number of hours we spend doing an activity all by our own selves. Here they are for you:

Activity	Daily (on 5 working days)	Saturday	Sunday
Work/Office	9	0	0
Commuting	1.5	0	0
Sleep	8	9	9
Watching TV	1.5	3	3
Having Meals	0.5	1	1
On Phone	0.5	1	1
Daily Chores	0.5	1	1
Shopping	0	1	0
Preparation of Meal (by Spouse)	1	1	1
Total	112.5 (22.5*5)	17	16

Total avg. hours spent on ourselves (in a week)	145.5	Hours
Total Available Hours (in a week)	168	Hours
Total Hours spent with Spouse (in a week)	22.5	Hours

Total days in an year	365	Days
Total days spent with our spouse in a year (22.5*52/24)	48.75	Days
Reducing Holidays/Official Tours spent alone (approx 15-20 Days/ year)	28.75	Days
Total days spent together in 35 years	1006.25	Days
% Time devoted to spouse	7.8	%

“No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?” (Elbert Hubbard, American Writer)

As you can see – even conservatively speaking (i.e. considering we work for “normal stipulated hours” at office) we spend not more than 13% of the time with our partner (week on week basis). All it means is that, out of 7 days in a week – we end up talking/interacting/spending “quality time” with our wives’ only for around half a day (or a bit more)! Now if that is not less – I don’t know how much is? Won’t you agree? And, increase the time of commuting (from home to office and back) and or increase the time spent in sleeping or even the time spent in watching TV silently (which we all do most of the times) – that percentage dips… even further. Again, if I add those weekly parties, which we indulge into (all alone with our friends) – it will add to the time we spent on “ourselves”, resulting in further decrease in the time spent with our family. And hey, take the yearly stats, and the figures become depressing in the current context of discussion (i.e. when individual holidays/tours etc are added).

Taking an average period of married life to be 35 years, the statistics becomes pretty dreadful. Refer to the above stats and you will see that we will not be spending even 3 full exclusive years, out of an approximate married life of 35 years, with our spouse! Now that is not even 10% of the total time available to us in those 35 years. Gosh! In fact, with modest figures that I have taken, we will be lucky to spend more than 7.8% of the time together and that, for me, is preposterous – especially with someone whom we love.

Mind you, I am only taking a scenario where the spouse is a house-wife. If both of them work – the percentages will take a huge hit and decrease even further. Now most of you may say that while we are at home we are with our wife, so why this farcical assertion? Well – for such people I say, look for yourself and decide for yourself on the time you spend talking to your spouse or spending time listening to her. You will know what I mean.

For someone we call our better halves; for someone we consider a part of our life and being; for someone whom we expect to be truthful to us for their entire life, not sparing an avg. of 2 full hours per day is ridiculous, to say the least.

I have to wonder then – are we doing justice to this sacred relationship? For someone (for whom) we profess undying love and (from whom) we expect more than that in return – are we really doing enough? No Sir, neither do I – and dare I say, nor does anyone married and reading this article. We all are failing our family and especially our wife. So, am I going overboard with these stats? Well, may be I am. But, am I giving too much credence to something that should not be taken too seriously? Well – I don’t think so. The relationship built under the so called institution of marriage demands all seriousness and care. You see, funny one-liners about spouses will keep getting made. Jokes about how husbands’ never end up talking to their wives because they do not like interrupting their better half – are good ways to poke fun at the expense of someone dear to you. I say, crack such jokes (and pamper yourself) – but don’t allow them to become a part of your philosophy. The bottom line shall always show the only relevant truth – We need to do more. Yes Sir, we need to do more to reassert our love for our life partners. And if being vocal at times is necessary – there is no shame in doing that.

I have always felt I have failed my wife more number of times than I can count. And no, it is not because I have been up to something “naughty”. I feel I have failed her because I perhaps have not cared to spare time for her, as much as I could have till now. I have failed her because I perhaps have fought with her more number of times than I can count. I have failed her because I have never truly expressed my love for her, as many times as I should have till now. I have never perhaps been able to tell her how lucky I am to have her in my life.

I have failed her on most counts as mentioned above. And when she is not around, I miss her and I yearn to tell her how much I love her. But every time she comes back from her holidays (or I come back from my tours) – I find it awkward saying exactly the same things that I keep reminding myself to say (when I am away from her). I convince myself to wait for an opportune time, to look in her eyes and tell her that I love her. Alas, that opportune moment has not come till now. And… the wait continues…

However, I intend to devote more “exclusive” time to my family (specially my wife) and spend some valuable time with them (including my kid) from now on. Because if I don’t, I know I will be reading this article 40 years down the line and repenting every moment that I have lost in working hard, chasing my own dreams at someone else’s expense. I do realize that corrective measures are in order and that they need to be taken now. And I do hope, after reading this, you will chart your own remedial path. Remember, no man on his deathbed could ever look up into the eyes of his family and said, “I wish I’d spent more time at office”. And needless to say – you only get one chance to get on that deathbed. I am not sure it would be a pleasant feeling then.

Someone once said – Love of your family is life’s greatest blessing, and once you marry – your Wife is a major part of it.

Increase that percentage of time you spend exclusively with your wife, because remember, your life depends on her.

Think about it.

Mantosh Singh..

8^th May 2007’ - 7^th June 2007’

Indian Cricket – My View

Indian Cricket team has generally evoked some strong emotions from all insane Indians like us. We just love to hate this game and the more we hate – the more we talk about it and the more we talk about it – the more we hate it. There is a special bonding between this set/bunch of 15 different players at different times and this bond keeps getting stronger. Did you notice the word “Hate” in the above sentences? Well – that is only because we just lost a major tournament. This word will be replaced with “Love” in all the above sentences the moment our team wins a major tournament again. Till then – “Hate” expression is “in”.

Post mortem has begun and has indeed been going on for some time now on the “whys and hows” of our loss in the 2007 World Cup. I had been disturbed by some blatantly atrocious views of people. Well, I had to go back to some statistics/figures to really look for answers. Unfortunately, not many News channels, experts and the big talking analysts have cared to go into the statistics of Indian performances in the last year and hence all their arguments are bordering on vagueness and their own personal choices. I have collated some data for you to ponder. Once you have seen the statistics ask yourself – did we really look like a team that could win a major tournament? I hope the statistics would show you why I even bothered to collect them. And mind you – I have taken all the One-day series that India has played under our “Great” coach Greg Chappell. Read on.

First Series under Greg Chappell:

-          In Aug 2005: India Tour to Zimbabwe:                  ODI Played – 7; Won – 5

Rahul Dravid named the new captain, replacing Saurav Ganguly:

-          In Oct-Nov 2005: Sri Lanka tour to India: ODI Played – 7; Won – 6

-          In Nov-Dec 2005: South Africa tour to India:         ODI Played – 5; Won – 2

-          In Feb 2006: India tour to Pakistan:                      ODI Played – 5; Won – 4

-          In Mar-Apr 2006: England tour to India:                 ODI Played – 7; Won – 5

All seemingly going well for India while playing IN India (exception being the Pakistan series). Now check the following trend from May 2006 onwards:

-          In May 2006: Indian tour to West Indies:               ODI Played – 5; Lost - 4

-          In Aug 2006: Indian tour to Sri Lanka:                   ODI Played – 3; Abandoned – 3
In Sep 2006: Indian tour to Malaysia (DLF Trophy with West Indies and Australia as other teams):                                                ODI Played – 4; Lost – 3

-          In Oct 2006: Champions Trophy in India:             ODI Played – 4; Lost – 3

-          In Nov-Dec 2006: Indian tour to South Africa:       ODI Played – 4; Lost – 4

Return of Saurav Ganguly

-          In Jan 2007: West Indies tour to India:                  ODI Played – 4; Won – 3

-          In Feb 2007: Sri Lankan tour to India:                   ODI Played – 3; Won – 2

World Cup 2007

-          In Mar 2007: World Cup:                          ODI Played – 3; Lost – 2

Let me ask you again then – did we really look like a team (with the past performances listed above) that could win? Do you see a trend in the above statistics? Warning bells should have started ringing from May 2006 itself. Don’t you agree? Look at the figures given above all over again. C’mon there is no rocket science here. The figures “are”, and dare I say, “were” glaring at us for last 10-11 months. Our wonderful people in Selection Committee and the great BCCI kept following the famous Gandhian principles (The one’s that tell us not to “look”, not to “say” and not to “hear”) and hence never rose (in unison) against this falling trend. And when they did – it was too late. The damage had been summarily done.

Before I move on, let us also recollect the reasons/logic that Greg Chappell, his stooge Rahul Dravid (who also is our Team’s Captain still – unfortunately) and the Lilliputian “Chairman of Selectors” of those times (our very own “Vibhishan”, Kiran More) gave to the country for persisting with the members of the losing team, series after series; losses after losses. They said – “…We need to build the nucleus of a young team and we need to persist with them to give them confidence…”. We were also told about the records of some of these youngsters, and how the team consists of Match Winners and how well they had performed “earlier”. We were told that the young members had “class” and they will succeed “inevitably”. Class? Hmmm… This bunch of classy players (that these people accumulated) sadly never delivered the “inevitable”. Huh. We were banking on players who were not able to score a single 50 in more than 2 years? Or the bowlers who had not taken a five wicket haul in more than a year or so? On top of everything – they kept playing some atrociously average players in the name of them being younger and better fielders than the one’s being ignored for selection. They kept playing this bunch of non-performing idiots for five continuous series (from May 2006 onwards) without even contemplating the repercussions of their actions. They lived in hope of performance, which (looking at the “class” of the players we were “persisting” with) was evidently not going to come through.

I have my own thoughts on the subject and I hope you will spare sometime to read them.

So, we did go wrong, but where?

Firstly, I think we lost time by NOT dropping the non-performers straight away. However young a team member is – if he is not able to perform with the bat and/or bowl – he will not win you matches “regularly” with his fielding ability alone – however great he is on the field. And no, we still do not have anyone like Jonty Rhodes in our ranks – so stop dreaming. Moreover, even if you had a brilliant fielder – you also needed him to contribute either with bat or bowl. Even Rhodes used to score an odd 50 and a hundred while batting and was lightening-quick in scoring those runs. I mean what is the point of having a good fielding side when they can’t bat or bowl when required of them? I am sorry to say – but by saving 10 runs (at an average) per match and by scoring only 10-15 runs (at an average) makes your score only 25-30. I don’t think these are enough runs against a player’s name to justify his selection in any international team. And the likes of Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao, Md Kaif etc looked out of the major league frankly. They SHOULD have been dropped in favor of either Saurav Ganguly right in middle of 2006 and/or replaced with some other so-called “younger” players. Similarly, Zaheer Khan should have been brought long back into the team. Irfaan and Ajit Agarkar type of bowlers should have been dropped. But we persisted with them, and persisted too long, at the cost of the team’s interest.

Secondly, I strongly felt we should have thought of removing Greg Chappell as a coach or at the least should have asked him to fall in line, to bring back some sensible order to the team’s progress. I have had some strong feelings about this man from day one of his assignment and have always felt that his acceptance of assignment as Indian Team’s coach had more to do than met our eyes. I have always had this uncomfortable feeling about him as if he was out here on a mission to destroy the winning combination that we had till the last world cup (2003). I will try and justify to you the basis for such thoughts. History shows that by 2003 – we were the ONLY side that looked like the one that could beat Australia. We were the number 2 ODI Team in the world, and were closing in on Australia. But – as history will also record – it took just one wrong move from the BCCI to destroy the fabric of that team and made it into one of the worst today. As is famously said - He came, he destroyed and he left. Yes Sir, he destroyed the Number 2 side of the world and converted them into a bunch of losers by the time he left. As any tactician would tell you, the best way to demoralize/destroy a group is to kill or deface the leader/most popular man in that group. Well, Mr. Greg started his stint with some unsavory comments about Sachin Tendulkar. Unfortunately, he picked the wrong guy to target and had to retract as soon as he landed in India for his assignment. He then picked the Captain of the team and called him all the “names” that any honorable man would not tolerate. He publicly humiliated him by “leaking” the famous “e-mail” and gave a couple of interviews, which he later conveniently disowned as not being his. All this was done to firmly set an impression in front of the world of a mad man in charge of the Indian team. Things would still not have gone bad had our board/selectors seen the cleverly orchestrated moves of this brilliant tactician and had thwarted his attempts by either continuing with Saurav Ganguly as captain or removing Greg as coach. None of that happened though and that for me was one of the major turning points in the history of Indian cricket. Saurav was humiliated and removed. Greg Chappell was praised for his outlook and “Vision” for Indian cricket. He then went on to continue to play and support the bunch of some non-performing players till the very last. Backing them in the name of his now famous “Process”. It will hence not be an exaggeration to say that the much talked about “Process” of his, was primarily meant to break this Indian team into a lame unit, filled with ever conniving team members with average abilities and in the “process” making an energetic fighting unit into a bunch of losers. Today he has left the job he had undertaken 18 months back, satisfied in the thought that he has done what he had come for. Just look back at his backing for Irfaan Pathan, Suresh Raina, Md. Kaif (till the very end), Virendra Sehwag, VRV Singh and even Harbhajan Singh. Perhaps then you would start seeing this the way I look at it. And friends, do not forget that his backing for such players was not limited to a game or two. It went on for match after match, series after series, till such time that a new Chairman of Selectors had to shut him up and force the return of Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly. But again, this happened too late and too close to the start of the World Cup 2007 and hence was rendered almost ineffective. We lost badly in the World cup. Thus, Greg’s mission, of bringing down the side that had challenged the Australians (our Coach’s motherland) in the last world cup was successfully achieved. With his job done – he promptly resigned and is happily on his way back home – satisfied and content. We, however, are left back collecting the ruins lying around. We still have not gather enough courage to blame him for the loss and the BCCI has (strangely) gone ahead and showered praise on this man for his vision, his help, his gestures, his methods, his co-operation etc etc. Has anyone asked them a simple question – “Why”? Are they scared that he will write a book and expose the lethargic functioning of BCCI and hence don’t want to instigate him? I mean on one hand we put all the curbs we can on the players who play the game and shower praises on the Coach of the side who incidentally is, for me, THE primary reason for the shocking state of Indian cricket today. And yes, for people who feel a coach is helpless if the team does not perform on the field, I say – shut up. I mean, how can we take this crap? If the coach cannot go and play in the middle, he cannot inspire the players to play well, he cannot help the players struggling for form, he cannot help the team bond together and win – what is he good for anyways, only to make impressive presentations? Why have a coach at all then? I am sorry, but such argument feigns cowardly traits. How long can we take such sick arguments anyways? Strange. Absolutely bewildering to say the least!

Thirdly, as is very evident – the BCCI and the selection committee should accept the blame and apologize to the people of this country. They spend time in politicking rather than doing something worthwhile for the benefit of the game. The spineless people who are part of the BCCI and the selection committee should either resign or alternatively, they should get their act together to come up with “meaningful” steps to kick-start a new beginning for Indian Cricket. We Indians however have lost all sense of that “famed” moral value that we once possessed (and for you who don’t agree to this judgment can look in the mirror and tell themselves that they do). Hence, to expect these scoundrels to vacate the space for more honorable people would be a futile exercise. So the least we can expect them to do is that they do something sensible for the good of the game. To take one example of how spineless they can get – consider what happened in 2005. The bunch of selectors in 2005 and 2006 were really a shameless bunch. I mean, they did not flinch even once before disowning their own player in favor of a damn Australian, who we could see was conspiring against our own Captain. As I have already noted above and as I am sure history will record - that one act (of removing Saurav Ganguly, both as Captain and as a player, at the insistence of Greg) created the much talked about rift in the team. A team that was known to have gelled together pretty well till then suddenly became a disjointed unit. The originators of the famous “huddle” were lying in ruins. And all this was because our selectors believed too strongly in the “Atithi Devo Bhava” slogan. A typical case of we Indians putting our tails between our legs and running after everything that a foreigner threw at us – and yes – with our tongues hanging out. It is often said – an ally of a conspirator is an equal party to a shameful act and hence these selectors (Rahul Dravid included) cannot escape that blame. We perhaps are the ONLY country in the world that followed advices of a Foreigner coach to crush our own heroes. And the likes of Ganguly, Tendulkar are heroes of this generation, have no doubt about that. Its no wonder then that people are scared to be named as heroes in this country now. No body would want to live in the fear of being conspired against and stabbed. Would they? I felt awful seeing our new Captain and that Lilliputian, Kiran More, demeaning our own cricketing heroes at the insistence of a foreigner. I could not help but feel disgusted. The feeling of repugnance I am sure was same for all the freedom loving Indians during the British rule, when they would see the Britishers using our own men to beat us up – making it more humiliating. Such Indians are a disgrace to the nation and anyone who supports them are adding to the disgraceful powers.

Fourthly, the great media cannot escape the “honor” of being major party to the sad state of cricket in India. These people are in the habit of grabbing any quote from a foreigner and justify the claims made by him/her. “Atithi Devo Bhava” again? Hmmm… Lets take a few examples of how they have contributed to the conspiracy. When Greg said “…Tendulkar is over and finished as a great player” – these media men ran around the world to look for the opinion of the former players. Aired those that corroborated Greg’s comments. They went ahead and did their own analysis. They juggled around with a lot of figures to finally conclude that Sachin was “indeed” not good enough anymore and should finally rest his bat. And mind you, this was way back in 2005 when Greg took over. Take another instance. Greg said – “We need to build the nucleus of the team with young players. Such young players would be more athletic and hence be better fielders”. Well, this was too long a statement to give to Indian Media anyways. The circus started immediately! These “we know all” type of Media men started jumping around. They collected some irrelevant data and deciphered them in their own way to show to the world how ineffective our senior players were and how poor our fielding was (again mind you, these same players had reached the Finals of the World cup just a year or so back). After all the heavily loaded analysis they concluded that Aah! These senior pros were indeed tortoises and hence should be removed. And here, seniors meant only Ganguly and Kumble. All the others like Rahul, Sachin, Sehwag were oh such swift fielders!! I mean, these media people can go to any length to make or break an image of a person. And to support them in their mission, there are any numbers of past players who are ready to say what the channels want them to. That gives credibility to media’s lopsided, unjustified reports/analysis. In all this, we should not overlook how effectively Mr. Greg used the powers of our media. All his e-mails, SMS, “personal views” to personal friends are part of now folklore stories. With the players not able to clarify their stand (due to gags against speaking to media) – Greg was free to play his games in getting his way. I must say here, the electronic media in India is lecherous. They need to be reminded of that famous old saying – With great powers come greater responsibilities. There is nothing much that can be said otherwise.

And finally, we as the patrons of the game are as much responsible for the state of Indian cricket today. Why – if I may ask, should we be so critical of the team that has but lost couple of games in a given tournament? Is it the fault of players that we did not see “it” (the loss) coming? We should have been more conscious of the statistics – shouldn’t we? Why blame the cricketers alone? That they were not playing well for a long-long time was there for everyone to see. If you still penned your hopes on them – it was your fault really. Why blame them so much? Again, why, if I may ask, are we jealous of the money they earn? Isn’t it ridiculous? How does it matter to anyone of us even if they earn billions? Have they ever questioned your earnings? You never give a damn about the companies that you jump around for 30-40% hikes? Why? If someone were to question you on the reasons that you left an “X” company to join a “Y” company – you would be shameless enough to tell everyone that “Y” offered you more money and hence you jumped the job. So? It is ok for you to get the right of earning as much money as you want – but not for these players? How lecherous can we get really? This is too bloody much. Also, are we all foolish enough to buy the argument that the players don’t perform well because they spend their time doing advertisements? I mean foolishness would be a mild word if you indeed would want to believe such crap. The problem is, we always believe that “we” are the people with best attitude and that our cricketers just don’t care about winning. Again, are you really of that mindset? Get yourself checked for devil’s sake. We will never know the feeling that one goes through while representing one’s own country. That is simply because most of us have never done that. So just stop questioning a player’s commitment to the team and their genuine efforts to win a given game. Look around friends, the game of cricket has changed and changed a lot. Haven’t you noticed? Gone are the days of players with 5’4”-5’8” height. Today cricket has become of game of powerful men, men who are taller and who are stronger. The talented, small sized players will win you some of the matches once in a while – but to win consistently – you need more players with good physique. Look at Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England – they are teams with players who are almost all over and above 6 ft. Another proof of what I am saying is the list of top 10 raters in batting and bowling (in ICC ranking). They are 95% players who are physically well built and stronger. Till we find such players, we shall continue to have our bad days more often then the good ones. Getting the picture? Stop blaming the players for not trying then. They are just not physically up to the “changed” international standards at the moment. Can’t you see? So what do we do then? Throw away all the players at one shot would be your answer – wouldn’t it? But I say – No. Persist with the best in the lot and wait for that special talent to come through the ranks and then go about winning consistently. To demean a player is never the solution. They have worked hard to be a part of the Indian cricket team and they deserve respect for all the hard work that they must have put in to reach that level. If we keep abusing the players as we do in times of distress, and if we keep bullying them – they would be ashamed of being an Indian. Do you really want them to feel that because of your act of vendetta that you perpetuate on their honor? I say, be guarded against any attempt to question the morality, the commitment and the honor of players who represent the nation on our behalf. Put yourself in their place and perhaps you will know what they must go through when you raise such venomous slogans and noxious abuses on them. The least we can do is to have reasonable expectations from our players, and being their patron, be a part of their sorrow as much as you are a part of their happiness. Treat them with respect that they truly deserve and if we can’t do the basic minimum of showing respect – we better shut our mouth for good. And hey, stop talking about the constitutional rights of freedom of speech. If the makers of the Constitution knew that this nation would someday have poisonous creatures like us – they would never have allowed such a fundamental right to be a part of constitution. So shut up.

I can also go on and talk about the players and their performances that led to our losing the matches. But I do realize that no one has suffered more than the players and they know they have not done justice to their own talent and as a result have missed a big chance. I won’t dwell into that aspect anymore than is already obvious.

What can we do now?

Well for starters – stop thinking of being like Australians. You can’t be like an Australian when you are born in India and vice-versa. I don’t think Australians ever tried to be like West Indians when they started re-building their teams just because West Indies were the world-beaters then. They devised their own methods to succeed. And so should we. We can and we should build the team our own way. Again, there is no need for an Australian to tell us what to do.

It is time we learnt from the fate of our National Game, Hockey. We were world champions in Hockey till 70s. We had the artistry and the skill like no one else. Europeans came along and changed the way the game was played. The game became faster and more physical. We tried to keep pace with them and won some games through our skilled and artistic moves. But that was not to last for long. We started losing pretty much regularly over a period of time. We then thought of playing the way the Europeans did and started to imitate their training schedules and tried to match their speed. But their physical abilities were superior to us and hence we found that we could not keep up the energy levels for the entire game. So we then did the next best thing, we hired a European coach to learn some European tricks. That move failed miserably. Today we are in a state where we no more have the natural ability that we had in this great game of hockey, the artistry and craftsmanship have vanished, the skill has all but deserted our players and on top of that we have still not found stronger players to match the physical strength of European players. The result is – we mostly end up playing for last two positions in major tournaments. Reasons for me are very obvious; perhaps we were wrong in trying to replicate the methods of Europeans on ourselves. They could never have the skills in Hockey that we had in those times and hence they devised their own strategies (that rested more on the physical abilities and faster game, than rellying on crafty moves) to beat us. Lesson to be learnt here is perhaps to go back to our roots and pick up people who have the good old hockey skills and who are physically stronger. An Indian Hockey team with 5-6 physically strong, tall men and the remaining team having the best of hockey skills would be ideal match-winning combination for an Indian team. Till we do that – we will lose more than we win.

If we understand this, and put the lessons learnt in hockey to cricket, we shall be on the right path to start with. MRF Foundation created to train budding talent has been running in India for more than a decade and Dennis Lillee has been coaching there for all those years. We still don’t have a tear-away fast bowler in our ranks – do we? Hence, lets look at what best we can do with the players that we produce. That would give us some answers. In the quest of being like someone else – we are leaving our own identity behind and in a sense ridiculing our own abilities that are on offer. It is time we should start trusting our own selves really. It is time we re-invent that love for the game and stop looking at all things in black and white. Give the players who represent us in the team the respect and support they need and you will see that we will start producing better cricketers and better results in future. These people like Sachin, Saurav, Dravid, Kumble have given better part of their life to bring joy to our lives. Give them a chance to help resurrect themselves. We will son be among the top teams once again – there never was any doubt about that and there never should be any doubt even today.

Would like to end with an appeal though. All I would like to say is, it would be appreciated if you all were to be more cautious before demeaning your own countrymen (our own players in the current context) – especially when they are themselves demoralized. It does not reflect any good on us when viewed by the international community. Don’t also jump to adverse conclusions about your own people just because a foreigner tells you so. Cricketers in India have brought enough happiness in our lives. It is terrible on our part not to show our gratitude to them for such wonderful memories that they have given us. If we keep making their life miserable every time they lose – I am sure the parents of today will not encourage their kids to take up this wonderful sport (as has already happened to Hockey). That would, for me, be suicidal for the future of this sport in our country.

And finally, I hope I won’t be writing 15 years down the line repenting the state of cricket as a sport then, because of some insensitive handling of our cricketing heroes in this era. Let us save Indian Cricket from going the Hockey way. Its up to us

Think about it.

Mantosh Singh..

10^th Apr 2007’