Black Day for Indian Sports

Prime Minister's Office,
The Honorable Manmohan Singh,
South Block, Raisina Hill,
New Delhi,
India-110 011

Dear Honorable Prime Minister,

It is with great shame that we will remember June 10th, 2004 as a Black Day for Indian sports. Deserving sports personalities were marginalised in favour of bollywood "stars" and self-serving politicians.

Whenever anybody thinks of India and the Olympics, one of the first names that comes into mind is of P.T.Usha. And today when the Olympic Torch was relayed across New Delhi, P.T. Usha was nowhere in the picture. Not only her, but several other deserving sports persons like Prakash Padukone, Baichung Bhutia and many more were conspicuous by their absence.

This highlights the callousness of the organisers who cannot distinguish between a solemn event like the Olympic Torch relay and a glamour event such as the filmfare awards. All the news that we see coming out of India is totally focussed on the film stars and their sense of "achievement". The Times of India has 'Ash runs to Olympic glory' as a headline on their home page. Most news web sites show photographs of these 'stars' running around with the Olympic Torch and there is only a fleeting mention of the people who actually represented India at the Olympics.

Carrying the Olympic Torch is an honour that is earned after a life time of sporting excellence. And the moment we get a chance to show some appreciation towards the sportsmen who have represented India, and have rightfully earned such an honour, we squander it away by drooling over our so-called dream merchants.

How can anybody justify Aishwarya Rai carrying the torch and P.T. Usha sitting at home. Or perhaps it is time to rewrite our sporting history and correct the records to reflect that it was actually Aishwarya who missed the medal at the Los Angeles Olympics and not P.T.Usha. None of these glamour icons can even hope to participate in the Olympics, let alone deserve the honour of carrying the Olympic Torch.

To quote Harsha Bhogle : "We dont have a great sporting history and we dont have too many world-beaters. And so we must celebrate what we have, remember those that went beyond the ordinary, whose hearts still beat with the intensity of competition and the desire to achieve. Unless we remind ourselves of their story, how can another Olympian emerge?"

We request you to treat this incident as a matter of national pride. Please restore our faith in India and our belief that our contributions to our country will not be forgotten. At the very least, we would want an unqualified public apology from the Honorable Sports Minister for the shame and disgrace he has brought upon us.

We believe that it has been far too long that sports in India has languished in incompetent hands and its time to set things right.