While sports other than cricket, and more importantly, women sportspersons, have always been taken lightly by the governing bodies of our country, one does not expect the same kind of attitude to be meted out to a player of PV Sindhu’s calibre.
Recently, a Bengali newspaper took things to a whole new level by wrongly printing Sindhu as the recipient of a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Today, another esteemed politician made a similar mistake wherein he seemed to have forgotten which sport the Indian shuttler plays.
In a fit of distracted passion, Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, the MLA of All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen, announced that Sindhu was an esteemed volleyball player who had brought laurels to her country in that field. The incident occurred at the recent 5km run organised at Charminar, Hyderabad.
Without going into the fact that volleyball is a team sport (while badminton is an individual one), it is necessary to take a step back and analyse the attitude that most sports receive in the country. The MLA’s callous remarks regarding a woman who recently broke into the top five in the international rankings belittles not only her but also her achievement.
It trivialises the fact that Sindhu was the first woman to win an individual silver medal at the Olympics for India.
Following India’s otherwise disappointing performance at the Rio Games, Sindhu’s medal seemed to be one of the few bright spots that held out hope for the future of badminton in the country. Her recent inclusion among the top five surely shows her unbreakable spirit and talent.
So, what did the woman of the moment have to say regarding the insulting mix-up by the MLA in question? Sporting as she is, she decided to take the incident in jest and not make a serious deal out of it.
