Afterall, a Supercop\'s ignominy has to be multiplied a million-times and beamed into all drawing rooms for his ego to be massaged. Rules made it difficult to remove KPS Gill from Presidentship of Indian Hockey Federation; so the sports domain honchos got together and knocked out the IHF itself. Now Gill has nothing to head.
A hero we can do without
Harbhajan Singh is one hell of a PR disaster. Appears in liquor ads, utters four letter words on the ground and unleashes the adolescent in him at the first opportunity. Few Sikhs look upon him as an iconic hero from the faith community and the guy has as much value as a stand up comic as in the role of a spinner on the 22 yard stretch that is the length of India\'s attention span as a nation currently. (From WSN March 12- 18, 2008 edition)
Aadmi Tha Ke Self-Goal
If a man's measure lay in the moustache, people would have found salvation in a bottle of gel. The banh-maror muchh-maror sardarlooking man has turned out to be a puny little fellow who rollicks in a mess that he creates with aplomb and has still to meet life and principle. . Of course, the official Indian establishment still needs him. Regimes always need fiddlesticks to kill the spirit of joysticks. Aadmi tha ke self goal! (From WSN March 12-18, 2008 edition)
On the cricket domain, Harbhajan Singh, never a pride of the Sikh community due to his actions, liquor advertisements and sundry other trippings, was banned from the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) after he slapped a fellow cricketer. TV footage found him guilty, and the man shared ignominy with KPS Gill on the same day, vying for his share of prime time insults. In both cases, humiliation was in full dosage, and self-inflicted.
While both were Sikh faces, it is remarkable that the community did have to lose face in either case. The Sikhs have never had any love lost for the duo. KPS Gill killed the game of hockey. Harbhajan Singh killed the spirit of cricket.
KPS Gill\'s sacking and Harbhajan Singh\'s banning has thankfully left the community aside because the two fellows have since long cast their religion and religiosity aside. Harbhajan not long ago spouted some teachings of the Tenth Sikh Master but it was clear that he has a lot to learn in humility, a basic tenet of any faith.
Dictatorial management, bad planning, no accountability, declining performance, failure to qualify for Beijing Olympics and a bribery scandal were cited as \"persistent reasons\" for dismantling the Indian Hockey Federation. There were clear and public pressure from the International Hockey Federation to clear up the mess in Indian hockey. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh\'s response was to make MS Gill, the former Chief Election Commissioner, as the Sports minister in place of Mani Shankar Aiyar, and let the two Gills slug it out. The slugfest did not last long. A sting operation that felled Gill\'s junior Jyothi Kumaran expedited things and soon Gill was on the mat.
Sections of the Indian media did not stop trying to help out Gill. Full page interviews, references to his \'supercop\' image and behind the scenes parleys did not stop. A Walking-Talking editor of an Indian national newspaper interviewed Gill just hours before his final exit, giving him full opportunity to make his case. In fact, at one stage, Gill conceded he did not even remember the names of the selectors of the Indian hockey team. And the Editor did not think of grilling Gill on even such an admission.
Just as in the moral turpitude case, Gill once again showed remarable capacity to strike the axe on his own foot, often without moving the axe.
Harbhajan Singh, the enfant terrible of Indian team, having escaped despite uttering a choice Punjabi abuse on an Australian field, thought he will get away with the slap, but the ubiquitous cameras nailed him.
Both thought they were more important than the game. KPS Gill tried to run Indian hockey the way he ran Punjab Police, all rules to the wind, and became tyrant yearning for more. Harbhajan brazenly shunned humility saying he only knows how to win. Both proved to be big losers.
Nothing of this is surprising in India. As WSN has mentioned earlier on various occasions, KPS Gill was given the post of hockey chief, to adjust him after he was rendered jobless and the government of India was obliged to adjust him. He was adjusted but hockey was killed in the bargain. Never mind that. In the interest of the state, that is a small sacrifice. After all, KPS Gill is the India nation-state\'s hero, who being a Sikh, was responsible for the extrajudicial killings of Sikhs in Punjab and \'crushing the rights movement\'. It was amusing to listen to KPS in the last few days talking of \'democracy and fair play\'. Man, he did make us laugh!
At one point, Gill had said those demanding his resignation were like professional mourners, the Rudalis. Thankfully, Gill at least recognize that things have come to such a pass that Rudalis are beating the path to his doorstep. He still could not hear the word: \"GO!\"
And down he went, with no one mourning. Indian Nation-State\'s Hero made for one of the biggest Zeroes on prime time television. Such is the fate of the man.
30 April 2008
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