Much ado about sheer inanities

EARLIER this month, the media devoted a lot of time and space to inanities. First,

it was Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed who said that Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma was ‘fat’, a remark that triggered a backlash from his numerous fans, as also from political parties opposed to the Congress.

The Indian team was on a roll when Shama made that observation. No one knows why and in what context she said it, but it did result in the party leadership distancing itself from her view. Cricket heroes are sacrosanct. Nobody is allowed to say anything negative about them, especially if the team is on a winning spree.

Yet, not one hero-worshipper had paused to consider whether the comment was apt. I do not think Rohit can be called ‘fat’, though he has put on some weight. Well, what does Shama or anyone else expect? As soon as you approach 40, which Rohit will reach in two years or so, a middle-age spread around the midriff is to be expected. Very few are like Rohit’s teammate Virat Kohli, who is managing to avoid the inevitable.

The test of fitness at that stage is to determine if the ageing cricketer’s reflexes are as good as that of the younger members of his team. In the field, he should be as agile as any of them. Rohit, I think, passes the test. He usually fields in the slips. There he has proved that his reflexes are as sharp as they were, except for an odd dropped catch.

There is a much more dangerous condition to bother about as you approach middle age. And that is eyesight. If your hand-eye coordination is affected, there is nothing one can do about that. Ordinary mortals like you and I will go to the optician and get a pair of spectacles. It is rare to see a bespectacled batter. None has crossed 40, mercifully.

In fact, I have not seen too many top batsmen lasting beyond 35 years. But India is blessed. Rohit and Virat are still around. In the just-concluded Champions Trophy, both contributed substantially to the team’s success. As India refused to travel to Pakistan, citing security concerns, the team’s matches were held in Dubai (Indian cricketers would have played in Lahore or Karachi had the Pakistani State been able to rein in terror modules).

Rohit and Virat are the darlings of cricket-loving Indians. The national selectors are in no position to drop them even if the duo suffers a drop in form. The decision to hang up their boots will have to be taken by these stalwarts themselves. Only they can take that call, not those entrusted with the selections. And certainly not Shama, who succeeded in stirring up anger and disgust among cricket lovers and ruffled the feathers of fellow politicians waiting to pick up any stick to beat their opponents with.

Talking of politicians, one notorious one in Mumbai is a Samajwadi Party (SP) leader named Abu Azmi. His name had cropped up in Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch files in 1992-93 when rioting, arson and killings shook the city. My friend MN Singh, who was heading the Crime Branch at that time, was busy chasing him.

Out of the blue, Abu recently gave a ‘good character’ certificate to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, whose reputation in recorded history is of a fanatic who went berserk destroying temples and plotting the murders of his own brothers in order to ascend the throne.

Abu asserted that Aurangzeb was a good king who had built temples and that he was not cruel! Whatever was ascribed to him as cruelty was in the course of his duties as the administrator of the realm, the SP leader said. He added that the battles Aurangzeb fought with Maratha warrior-king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj were not because of communal considerations but for asserting power.

This statement was picked up by other political parties in Maharashtra. The BJP and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction) were the most vocal in their condemnation. Chhatrapati Shivaji is worshipped in the state, particularly by the Marathas, the caste to which he belonged.

The brouhaha lasted a few days. The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, of which Abu is a member, suspended him for the rest of the state Budget session.

A news channel conducted a debate by known historians on the entire episode. In the course of the debate, one of them stated that Shivaji’s eldest son and heir, Sambhaji Rao, was an alcoholic and a debauch. This assertion set off another round of vitriol that was difficult to control.

Udayanraje Bhosale is presently the BJP MP from the Maratha stronghold of Satara. He is a direct descendant of Shivaji. The ruckus that started with Abu’s remarks prompted Bhosale to demand a law to be enacted in Maharashtra, prohibiting defamation of the state’s icons and making the offence non-bailable.

Such a law would infringe upon freedom of speech, which is enshrined in the Constitution. Moreover, the army of historians and researchers in India will live under constant fear of unearthing skeletons in the icon’s cupboards, which if published would land them in jail! And that would inevitably turn the country into a police state.

There are many more important issues that plague the public mind. Unemployment, the price rise and the ever-lengthening claws of corruption are surely more important. These issues affect people in their daily life. Ironically, Opposition leaders Shama and Abu helped the ruling coalition distract public attention from these pressing issues.