Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaas recourse to a boycott of Sri Lankan cricketers is a graceless gesture that diminishes her,Tamil Nadu and,in fact,India. By stating that Indian Premier League fixtures will be permitted in the state only if they involve no Sri Lankan,be it cricketer or match official,she has breathed more xenophobic fire into the agitations over the Sri Lankan governments alleged war crimes. Her reference to popular antipathy and anger against the Sri Lankan government is a glib alibi that will not wash. She is not heeding popular antipathy. She is giving it greater shape and ballast. It would take naivete of a high order to believe that provision of security to the odd Sri Lankan player would have in any way posed a problem. In fact,with Chennais well-earned reputation for sporting gestures,it is doubtful whether extraordinary measures would actually have been called for.
This is not about cricket,however,which is only the latest focus of the irresponsible politics being played on the issue of alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka. Also,for this,the responsibility does not stop at Jayalalithaas doorstep. The Centre,too,is responsible for allowing matters to come to such a pass that the rhetoric is now cleanly divorced from the controversial UN human rights resolution and even the plight of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. What is on display,instead,is an unseemly competitiveness on who and which political party can ratchet up emotions more inflammably. It is not just that Jayalalithaa decrees that Tamil Nadu will not host the Asian Athletics Championships because Sri Lankan sportspersons will be participating or that cricketers from that country will not be allowed to play in the state,or even that the Tamil Nadu administration affects such helplessness over attacks on Lankans visiting the state. The horror is,yet more,that neither the Centre nor any other political party is willing to counsel reason and unambiguously point out that these are the ways of banana republics,not robust,liberal democracies.
