Historic hockey

March 9 will be remembered as the blackest Sunday in the history of Indian hockey.

8226; March 9 will be remembered as the blackest Sunday in the history of Indian hockey. It seems that hockey, once a matter of national pride, has become one of national shame. What is responsible for this decline is the stepmotherly treatment meted out to hockey in comparison with cricket. The media, and thus the people, are overjoyed when a junior cricket team wins a junior world cup. The way is cleared for these kids to become millionaires. The less said about the attention paid to the national cricket team, the better. Indian hockey players and those engaged in sports other than cricket get little praise and wealth for their major international victories. While the best hockey players remain poor, the worst cricketer rolls in riches. There is a pressing need to overhaul the Union sports ministry, the Indian Hockey Federation and the Indian Olympic Association, all of whom are responsible for India8217;s failure to qualify for the Olympics. Once that is done, the next target should be the corporate sector, which refuses to see beyond cricket when it comes to sponsorship.

8212; Dilbag Rai

Chandigarh

Poor cousins

8226; Indian hockey8217;s failure to make it to the Olympics for the first time since 1928 is catastrophic. As with most Indian failures, the issue is taking a political turn now. But honestly, all of us as a nation are responsible for the debacle. If we had been less enthralled by cricket, hockey and a whole lot of other sports we were good at could have been saved.

Ironically, Indians began playing cricket to keep the sahibs company in their lordly sport. Hockey was our own down-to-earth game; but with little money and no fame in its pursuit, hockey is fast dying out and may not be around for long. It is time Indian hockey was revived, with additional care given to training and a lot more money invested in infrastructure.

8212; Mahesh Kumar

New Delhi

Left-right clash

n This refers to the editorial 8216;No way to protest8217;. Kannur has been a battlefield for almost last 30 years. The tussle between the RSS and the CPM has indeed nothing to do with ideology. It is just a fight for territory, and the victims have mostly been the poor.

The Marxists champion the common man but it is the common man who bears the brunt of the trouble in Kannur. But no prominent leader of either the CPM or the RSS or his family is affected by the violence. The BJP/RSS and the CPM are equally responsible for the trouble and they are both protecting their respective criminal henchmen. Arresting all of those responsible for the attack on the CPM8217;s Delhi office should send the right signal to both cadres.

8212; K.P. Udayabhanu

New Delhi

Silent roar

8226; The declining numbers of India8217;s national animal indicate the real danger of tigers vanishing from our wildlife map altogether. Many promises and measures have followed the dwindling pugmarks, but to no avail. The latest tiger census has astonished one and all, with a sharp fall in contrast to the figures tabulated in 2002. The petty politics that has followed the census mocks the credibility of such national surveys.

With many states refusing to address the threat, the onus for tiger conservation has fallen squarely on the Central government8217;s shoulders.

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State governments are busy passing the buck and blaming 8216;faulty8217; tabulation methods. At a time when careful planning and concentrated action are needed to undo the damage already done, bureaucratic politics is plaguing the Save Tiger project.

8212;Farzana Z. Khan

Pune