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Bend it like Bhutia!

By: Runa :+: Under: Desi Please, Opinion, Sports
On: ⋅ April 6, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Bhaichung Bhutia - the captain of the Indian football ( aka soccer) team - has made a career out of - pardon the mixed sports metaphor - swimming against the tide.

Bhutia stands up for himself
img: via Telegraph India

After all he is a sports hero to millions in India- a country where cricket (and spoilt-brat cricketers!) are a national obsession. At sixteen, he made his professional debut in the East Bengal club. At 22, he played for Bury F.C in England. When folks were calling for his retirement, he scored 3 goals in 5 matches at the ONGC Nehru cup tournament to prove that he still has it. (link)

On April 2nd Bhutia performed yet another heroic act- in my opinion -when he become one of the first athletes to refuse to carry the Olympic torch as it wends its way across India this month.(link)

“This is my way of standing by the people of Tibet and their struggle,” he was quoted as saying in The Times Of India. “I abhor violence in any form.”
He added: “I sympathise (sic)with the Tibetan cause. I have many friends in Sikkim who follow Buddhism.”

Bhutia has been careful to declare his decision a purely personal one.

Predictably, many fellow sportspersons have not supported his decision ( link)

…. former 400m runner Milkha Singh, who will be a part of the torch relay to be held in New Delhi on April 17. “I feel that sports and politics should not be mixed,” Milkha said.Also disagreeing with Bhutia were former Davis Cup captain Jaideep Mukherjea, swimmer Bula Chaudhary and former national football player PK Banerjee.

Boycotting part of the Olympics torch relay may not result in meaningful disruption of the relay or the Olympics itself. But Bhutia has understood that the only way to deal with bullying is to stand up against it. And China’s acts - whether it is its initial takeover of Tibet, or its subsequent crackdown on any legitimate protests by Tibetans is nothing short of bullying.

On the one hand, we have a huge democracy like India falling short in its response to Chinese aggression.China called the Indian envoy Nirupama Rao well past midnight to protest the storming of the Chinese embassy by Tibetan protestors. Instead of responding that she would discuss the matter during regular hours, the envoy meekly went to the meeting where the Chinese presented her with (link):

a list of places where Tibetan exiles purportedly planned to hold protests, Beijing was not only asking the world’s largest democracy to deny Tibetans the right to protest, but also revealing the existence of a Chinese intelligence network in India (and suggesting it was superior to India’s)

Is this not the hallmark of a bully - to posture aggressively and to psychologically intimidate?

Some may question the importance of Bhutia’s action by declaring it as a purely symbolic one.I would argue that the history of the world is full of acts that - while at first glance may be symbolic - often had far-reaching consequence on the fate of nations.When Gandhi picked up the fistful of salt at Dandi - it was symbolic. When the lone protester stood before the oncoming tanks at Tianamen square in the iconic photograph that forever memorialized the event -it was symbolic. Perhaps, like these, Bhutia’s symbolic gesture is also foretelling of changes to come.

There are also questions about the mixing of sports and politics. How appropriate is it for a sporting event to become the focus of political or personal protest? Listen to what former Olympian Chuni Goswami who came out strongly in support of Bhutia said (link):

“Baichung has done a great job. He feels for the Tibetans who have been oppressed and persecuted……..I also do not subscribe to the view that sportspersons should not get involved in such political issues. Politics is a part of life, and you can’t ignore it.”

In contrast to the distressingly milquetoast response of the Indian Government, Bhutia has chosen to answer the call of his conscience.The easiest thing for him to do was to participate in the relay, get all the good press that the event will generate, keep his sponsors like Nike happy and join the brotherhood of celebrities like Amir Khan and Saif Ali Khan who are going to participate. He has chosen instead to respond in the finest way possible and demonstrate his empathy for the cause of the Tibetans. He has stood up for what he believes in.Shakespeare said it best:

This above all: to thine own self be true/And it must follow, as the night the day/Thou canst not then be false to any man.

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