Party games

The politicisation of the iftar party is complete, it seems, with the unholy ruckus over the presence of banned former cricket captain M. ...

The politicisation of the iftar party is complete, it seems, with the unholy ruckus over the presence of banned former cricket captain M. Azharuddin at Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu8217;s iftar feast last Friday. With his allies breathing down his neck, Naidu allowed himself to be caught on the backfoot. He denied that his government had officially invited the controversial cricketer for the do and added that he was caught in an embarrassing position, not being able to turn out a guest. These observations, in turn, forced Azhar to produce the relevant invitation card before the media. The cricketer had every right to be angry and upset over this shabby treatment and particularly at the imputation that he had gatecrashed this event, as well as others recently held in Hyderabad, just in order to inveigle his way into the good books of the Andhra chief minister.

Some months ago, when Azharuddin was beginning to feel the heat of the matchfixing scandal, he had claimed that he was being targetted because he belonged to the minority community and that people could not countenance the fact that a Muslim had guided Indian cricket for well nigh 16 years. At that time, his statement was generally perceived as being grossly unfair and unwarranted and many, including this newspaper, had advised the Hyderabad batsman to get real. It had been argued then that the matchfixing controversy had to be addressed as an issue concerning cricket and cricket alone, a game which had historically brought together Indians from variegated religious and regional backgrounds, to play as a team for the nation; a game that had united, not divided the country. It followed from this that the punishment for sullying the game and bringing it to disrepute 8212; as players like Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar are alleged to have done 8212; should be dictated by the law, and the law alone.

It is against such a background that the recent iftar episode in Hyderabad should be viewed. It seems that there are many politicians who would like to prove Azharuddin right by targetting him in a fashion that can only be termed as communal. Not surprisingly, then, Chandrababu Naidu, who has adroitly managed to maintain an equidistance between his BJP allies and his 8220;secular8221; image, finds himself in a particularly embarrassing position. His protocol officers do more damage even as they desperately seek to retrieve the situation. But it is not the verbal contortions of Naidu8217;s spinmeisters that should concern us here but rather the fairness of the process of inquiry into the matchfixing scandal. As things stand, the players have been given time to reply to the CBI matchfixing report indicting them of the crime. Targetting Azharuddin for extraneous considerations is therefore totally and completely unjustified. The Andhra Pradesh state government certainly owes the cricketer an apology for its lack ofcourage, lack of grace and, above all, lack of sensitivity.