Back from Athens with a couple of medals, and a suitcase full of angst

Beginning with the fact that all 19 Indian participants had to shell out Rs 82,000 from their own pockets to make the trip to Athens. ‘‘My medal money will compensate me. But what about the rest?’’, Devendra asks.

The problem stems from the lack of government recognition for their organising body, the National Paralympic Council. A situation that prompts even NPC president Ratan Singh to talk about government and state apathy.

Devendra — whose left arm was amputated — asks: ‘‘We took part on the same grounds the Olymp-ians did. I won gold and the same national anthem was played that we all stand up to. The same tricolour was unfurled as it is anywhere else. Then why aren’t we given the same respect ‘they’ are? Haven’t Rajinder and I achieved more than our Olympic contingents for so many years have?’’

Polio victim Rajinder chimes in: ‘‘Devendra won a gold medal at a tournament that is run parallell to the Olympics. Did even one television channel show him? If people had seen him, 10 more Devendras would have come up. The government doesn’t recognise our body (the NPC) and therefore we don’t get grants. So we don’t have money. Even the weights I lifted in Athens were so different from the weights I lift here.’’

He has an interesting aside. ‘‘When we reached there, we were weighed and then categorised. Why? Because we don’t have medical staff here who can do it. Everyone else knew which category they were going to be in.’’

Ratan Singh confirms that the NPC has had talks with the sports ministry for many years now. And though current incumbent Sunil Dutt had promised, before the Games, to expedite the affiliation process, nothing has come through. ‘‘We organise meets in an ad hoc manner because we don’t have money,’’ Singh adds.