No Indian flag at the 2014 Winter Olympics: could Indian sport sink any lower?

India’s Shiva Keshavan, who will compete under the Olympic flag at the Sochi Winter Olympics

India not the first country to be banned, but the list is far from illustrious

Although it is a shame for us as Indians that our country was suspended by the highest body of sports in the world, we can console ourselves by going through the list of countries which have been barred in the past by the IOC.

In 1964, the IOC banned South Africa from Olympic competition because of the country’s policies regarding racial discrimination. Despite the South Africans claiming they would allow athletes of any race to join their Olympic team that year, the IOC demanded the South African government publicly renounce all racial discrimination in sport. The white majority government in South Africa refused and was banned from Olympic participation until 1992.

Rhodesia too was banned from the Olympics just four days before the 1972 Munich Games began because of racist policies in the nation. That nation, which collapsed in 1979, never competed in an Olympic Games.

In 2000, Afghanistan was banned from the Summer Games because of human-rights violations against women under the Taliban. Four years later they were allowed, upon the inclusion of female Olympians.

Germany was also banned from several Games for their involvement in World War I and World War II.

Being bracketed along with racist, fascist and cruel regimes from the past – not very nice company for India, is it?

A shameful episode in Indian sports history

That a country with more than 1 billion people cannot fetch enough medals at the Olympic Games is a sobering fact. In 2012, India bagged 6 medals, the country’s highest ever medals tally! But the fact that a country of 1 billion people can’t even send its athletes to compete under its flag is surely something that is much worse – it’s a matter of national shame whichever way you look at it.

We were bestowed the right to host the Commonwealth Games in 2010. That could have been a golden opportunity for India to improve its infrastructure and pave a gateway to success in sport. But instead, the country indulged in all kinds of unholy scams; the chairman of the IOA himself was involved in a controversy that destroyed India’s global image.

And today, we have reached a point where India’s flag is not being allowed to be unfurled at the highest stage of world sport. Are we regressing instead of progressing?