Slimiest of them all

When we talk of Sports in India we cannot ignore the corruption and politicization. Cricket for instance has attracted all kinds of scoundrels. The slimiest of them is one who goes by the name Sharad Pawar. This fellow is the Union Agriculture Minister and also scraped in as BCCI head, now our man wants to see himself as ICC chief- with bit of politicization on racism he might even make it, already the greasy fellow has capitalized on the divide, most South Asian countries it seems are supporting his candidature. Infact the interest in matters of cricket has crossed party line (Jaitley boy is another patriotic savior), Pawar is therefore in an enviable position, something we should admire, the reason why monkeys use words like ‘astute’, even ‘senior’. In Indian context successful politician is the one who has clout. Clout comes from money, money buys vote bank. Clout and money also comes from the position one holds.

Agriculture Ministry is least of Pawar’s concern. Thousands of farmers have suicide and are suiciding as I write. When he visited Kerala sometime back he refused to meet farmers in Wayanad, lack of time was the reason given. What is consuming his time? A seasoned scoundrel meaning ‘senior politician’ he knows his priorities. Is he not holding the office of profit being a Union Minister? Is he not violating the code?. Even if he is not isn’t it clear that he should be concerned with grievous matters of his Ministry?.

What has this man to do with cricket; he is very obviously capitalizing the game to build up his clout and wants the limelight. Why any politician should be allowed space in sport bodies? Why is Indian sport not doing well has answer in these and Pawar is a glaring example. People like him should be kicked out if not shoved out like the Australian team recently did on the dais, poor little Pawar was doing what comes naturally to him- getting himself photographed. Rightly so, Australians didn’t want him in the frame. For a politicians this is the most tragic moment!!. Senior cricketers cried foul on Australian teams behavior. The reason has more to do with the clout this fellow has- its licking time folks, why are they not crying foul on the way the politicians have invaded the game? Why nobody asks ‘What is Pawar doing in cricket??”. One ‘senior member’ of Indian team (meaning ‘permanent member’ in Indian context) even invoked ‘culture of treating elders”. With statements like these he is sure to remain in the team for long time (not to forget Maharashtra lobby). Bloody wimps. They could learn a lesson or two how to treat scoundrels from Australians (ofcourse it was ill mannered but then what has mannerism to do with Pawar in Indian cricket board). When push comes to shove then shove should end up in a kick otherwise why shove?!

People like Pawar can be evicted by no other way. They are veterans in this game and know how to cling on. It is not about charisma, the clout has basis in money power which he has accumulated over the years. Surely the fellow found his wavelength in Enron (must have made millions through bribes. This fellow's name keep creeping-in in almost all corruption scandal). Corporate corruption is unheard of in India. Now Pawar is making money through ‘men in blue’. No wonder ‘men in blue’ have more endorsement obligations, an achievement even the best teams in the world cannot match. It is that ‘cricket is just a game’ is accidental. Pawar laughs off any other suggestions. Suicides by farmers is another game going on. The fact that Indian agriculture sector is in shambles is another game he need to shrug. The tragedy is he will carry on, as he has been for decades. And yes monkeys in Media will admire his cunningness after all it is just what they also aspire for, such dexterity. Lickers will converge and share some tips, this is where the stampede is. Cricket is just a game!!!.

On buying emotion (written before the WC debacle)

Sachin Tendulkar is a member of Indian cricket team. Many Indians know him and admire him for his batting skills. But many is not most since most Indians don’t watch cricket or may not have TV, there are many other issues, basic needs, to take care -also considering that millions live below poverty line. That is reality check for you which market gloss cannot hide. Nevertheless Sachin Tendulkar is an inspiring figure for millions of youngsters in metros and small town.

So far we understand that Mr. Tendulkar is a good batsman with an impeccable on-field behavior in short a good sportsperson. The problem starts when he packages himself to sell products. Here they focus on his personal attributes-which is constructed as the situation demands, more appropriately the market demands. It is also that the Market capitalizes (or packages) the image he- media, has created. Since media is extension for market it means the same thing. This is where they play with the emotions of people. People like-adore Sachin because he is a good sportsperson. Now the construct is Sachin likes-adores Coca Cola (or say a brand of bike) so since people adore Sachin they should also adore the product. Adoration here is now constructed as ‘buy it’. The last part is implied-this is where we get to acquaint subtlety in crass world of Market. The role of Sachin is to emote, to authenticate this liking. This is where the issue of cheating comes since he is emoting to capitalize the emotions of the people for his cricket playing skills into hard cash for the company. This blogger however fails to understand what kind of fool will be influenced by ads when making choices of such costly products. It is ridiculous but then Sachin is so admired by many they can be unreasonable. It is also a different matter whether Sachin has ever used that brand of bike or has done a comparative study with other brands. Most importantly who is he to tell people which brand to buy. He is only a cricket player not a bike expert. Clearly they are playing with emotions of the cricket lovers for shubh lab.

Sachin Tendulkar is just an example this true about all sportsperson around the world, but Indians make it big because of population rather than competence. Now the question is since they made millions out of people’s emotions what happens when they break people’s emotions or don’t fulfill the expectations-further hyped by market???. People will give it back in the same coin. They attack their property and abuse them……well this blogger has absolutely nothing against people’s emotional outbursts. Fans are expected to behave that way particularly when they are being cheated, or sold big dreams by mediocre. In Indian context it needs to be particularly vicious, since we are not living in decent world why always expect fans to be decent (offcourse most ridiculous fan reactions are media managed-no rocket science there). When selling product they target people’s emotions but when they fail in the game they tell people to be rational and blame the fans for irrationality. You invoke their emotions and make money and now tell them to control themselves when at receiving end, quite strange!!!. This blogger also feel that the fan’s reactions has been quite subdued, they need to go step further particularly in case of players who come in ads. They should make them live in fear. So that next time they take an ad assignment they need to understand what they are getting into. Licking into people’s feelings can be dangerous. Shubh lab comes with strings attached dude.

Post script: The above piece was written before the Indian cricketer’s disastrous performance at the “world cup” (sure there is world out there!!), I was ambivalent about publishing this in my blog. The suggestion of this blogger (who has no love for cricket but is very concerned about Marketers exploiting people’s emotions, also since every moron in the town has an a suggestion why not me!!!) to BCCI would be to make an obligatory clause in the contract with the players to avoid endorsement and ads. The argument that players are doing this in ‘free time’ is rather juvenile since they are exploiting people’s expectations and emotional association with the game and are therefore very much responsible for inactions on the field. This blogger suggest the players to go for a long walk during ‘free time’!!!. Also the contract should ask players not to indulge with Media (essentially bunch of monkeys desperate for big money) nor should the board members, the media need to be dealt with press releases- that is asking for too much when people are jostling for eyeball space.

Greed comes from insecurity. Insecurity is an illness of mind, they reflect this when they play the game and refuse to take risks as they don’t want to loose money from endorsements. They don’t mind working on their own image (creating records another passion around here at the teams expense -remember that fellow Ravi Shastri-who just wanna have Audi car babe-he does come in with his expert comments nowadays, he surely can coach team on matters commercial!!. The point was not whether India won the match but whether it was right for Tendulkar to miss double century!!). Image building therefore takes precedence over team or the game. Thus we have more ‘Stars’(Digaj kiladi) than players. The reality was shown by few teenagers from Bangladesh!!. Then they say that Bangladesh played well (no Indian ‘stars’ never play badly- they are part of cosmic reasons). What Bangladesh team was all about was shown by Sri Lanka. The reality is far from the hype the monkeys are creating. How about not keeping record of players score???. This will make matches immensely interesting.

In conclusion this blogger feels that only player worth mentioning would be Rahul Dravid. He has been impeccable. Quite an inspiring fellow, I feel sorry for him. I guess the Market hype did his team in (it can be quite disconcerting when millions of people are watching and have opinions). The ‘stars’ in his team forgot they are to play cricket and not represent Pepsi-Coca Cola (Champu Khan did his patriotic puppetry bit). The tragedy was already written on the wall if anybody had time to read.

“I will use my gun if needed….”

Well well well I don’t have a gun…..sorry to disappoint. This was a statement made by ‘senior politburo’ member of CPI (M) as a clarification since a loaded gun was detected in his bag at Chennai airport. It was answer to Media on whether he would use gun. Neek pokkan (comrade Pinrayi Vijayan) uttered what government at Bengal did not hesitate to practice. These are the ‘new leaders’ of Left- byproduct of ‘changing times’ in certain circles. This blogger had in recent past documented the complete lack of social development in Bengal. The ‘leaders’ are truly the feudalist in Marxist garb. They never had to practice democracy in their daily dealings since the society lacked mobility ….so elections became matter of ritual. It is true in any region where the comrades have ruled they tend to undermine democracy…..and thus are prone to dictatorial exigencies. Atleast in other communist regions they had (have) the history of giving utmost important to social indices, also leaders do spring up from lower strata- sometimes truly revolutionary whether Lech walesa or Castro, in Indian context particularly in Bengal the ‘bandralok’ have usurped the power and have passed on to their clan, with, one must admit here, remarkable efficiency that even the non political intellects of the country have been taken for ride for quite sometime. Some achievement this from the bunch that operate through goons at the grass root, but impeccably humble at social gatherings. The goose is very much out and as suspected the scene is far from rosy. The ugliness is for all of us to see. It is easy to play the opposition and garner votes and sympathies of people but when one is in power the equation changes. As the boogeyman told children in kindergarten ‘with power comes responsibility’.

It is not a coincidence that CPI (M) is known to bulldoze its allies in the Left, they surely are not used to democracy. This is not a startling fact, it was always there but now in open since they are in the decision maker’s seat in a crucial situation, expectedly they showed their true colours. It is also not a coincidence that it is the Left that has been vocal against democratic institution like the Election Commission or the Supreme Court (in Kerala the student’s wing came blatantly in open against the Court throwing out norms and conventions…with active support from the ‘leaders’). As a preempt they have also started making statement against Art. 356. This blogger is very much for article 356, infact my contention is since it is politicized and misused many a times, there need to be provision on PIL from citizen to impose Art 356 in case the Governor fails to act or centre considers political exigency. Suo moto could be taken by the court. There is a need to strengthen Art. 356 by including common people.

This blogger suspects the lack of transparency and corruption in election process in Bengal. When the RSS members in government service is cause of concern why not Comrades. Any form of politicization of government machinery is serious whether RSS or Comrades (or even mullahgiri). Post liberalization the political parties are hand in glove with Marketers, it is no wonder that despite changes in the government the policies are almost the same. Democracy surely has become a farce. And yes neek pok Vijayan can use his gun if he wants, so can the goons in Nandigram. Sometimes the dialectics of materialism has no dialects but only materialism, Comrade Budhadeb Bhattacharjee I am told knows better.