Opinion Unasked IPL questions
For someone with no interest in cricket,I find myself in the strange position of having to write about it yet again this week....
For someone with no interest in cricket,I find myself in the strange position of having to write about it yet again this week. Not because I want to add my two bits to the IPL feeding frenzy that has gripped the Indian media but because it has raised wider,more important questions that have so far not entered the debate. One of these is whether our 24-hour news channels have not become a tool in the hands of government agencies that are using them to reduce their own homework.
Turn the media into a lynch mob and you finish Lalit Modi before he is allowed to defend himself. Is that not what the tax inspectors have succeeded in doing? Cameras were allowed onto the premises they were searching and every last inspector seemed available for a piece-to-camera and a snappy sound byte. As I watched them in operation last week,I was reminded of how the same methods were used by the police in the Jessica Lal case to discredit Bina Ramani as a witness. They charged her with all sorts of offences and made sure that the media was given every last detail of such criminal activities as serving liquor without a licence. Not much of an offence when compared with murder but had they succeeded Manu Sharma would have been freed for lack of evidence.
Ever since I wrote against tax raids in this column last week,I have been berated in your letters and on Twitter for supporting Lalit Modi. I feel the need to clarify that this is not about individuals but about democratic institutions and the need to ensure that they do not behave in an undemocratic way. A raid is undemocratic but a tax investigation is not. There are civilised ways of investigating tax fraud. A midnight raid with TV cameras in tow is not one of them. So to conclude that because I oppose tax raids I am supporting tax evaders is ludicrous. And,it might interest you to know that the Government of Indias own task force on tax reform,headed by Vijay Kelkar,had this to say,Search and seizure cannot be a way of life for a civilised society. The report pointed out that tax raids accounted for less than 1 per cent of revenue but encouraged the worst kind of officials to hanker after being posted in the search and seizure department.
As this columns middle name is irreverence,may I add here that among the politicians who defended tax raids passionately on television last week are those who would be deeply embarrassed if they were raided. I know some of them personally and say this on the basis of assessing the cost of just a few of their humble possessions. Let them be warned that there are tax inspectors these days who own a few gold Rolex watches themselves so they know what they cost.
The other important question that the IPL feeding frenzy has raised is that of the disgraceful state of all sports in India. Should we not be more interested in why in the Olympics march past,the Indian team is the only one that usually has more officials than athletes? Why have we won no more than a handful of medals in sixty years of glorious Independence? Why when the Olympic torch travels through Indian cities do we see fat,ageing politicians carrying it instead of sportsmen?
The reason for this shameful state of affairs is that all Indian sports have been in the hands of government. This is a tradition we copied from the Soviet Union and China in the days when we thought of them as shining beacons of progress and enlightened political thought. The difference was that while the Communist governments in those countries built the stadiums and training centres for their athletes our politicians built for themselves little empires. If it were possible they would have turned every sport into a private club that promoted only their kith and kin as they have done with Parliament. Luckily for us most of their progeny are spoilt princes and princesses incapable of the discipline required for serious sporting activity. But,the price we paid by leaving everything in the hands of government was that no effort was made to search for the strongest and bravest of our citizens in the villages of India. Officials are generally lazy when it comes to rural travels so they confined their activity to cities and towns. And,because they had a monopoly they did not allow private sporting facilities to come up either. This is why IPL was such a breath of fresh air. But,its all over now. In the words of a young friend on Twitter,Enjoy the IPL
final.this might be the last one.
Follow Tavleen on Twitter @tavleens
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