View: India has failed its athletes

When your Olympic champions are on the road protesting for weeks on end, the country is the loser in front of the world. This isn’t the idea of India that we stand for. For a country that aspires to host the Olympic Games in a decade and a Youth Olympic Games even earlier, the least it can do is protect the dignity of its athletes. It is about doing what’s right. It is about restoring the dignity and self-respect of our Olympic champions and treating them with empathy. From standing on the podium and seeing the tricolour go up to sleeping on the footpath and begging to be heard, it isn’t something India can ever be proud of.

The matter should not have gone to the Supreme Court in the first place. That it did is in itself proof that we failed our champions.
Could the issue have been handled better? The answer is an overwhelming yes. PT Usha, one of India’s greatest athletes, is now the president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). It’s only natural that the expectations from her are high. Why did Usha not go to Jantar Mantar to meet the protesting wrestlers even once? Why couldn’t there have been a more sympathetic approach on her part? Why did she label a peaceful, democratic protest as an act of “indiscipline”? The wrestlers might well be wrong. But that doesn’t take away their right to lodge a peaceful protest if they feel wrongdoing has been going on. Had Usha stepped out of her comfort zone and met the protesting athletes, the right message would’ve been conveyed. What transpired at the press conference portrayed it as standoffish and not pro-athlete.

It was only after the matter was taken to the Supreme Court that the Delhi police agreed to lodge the FIR. Question is why did it take them so long? When the matter involves a minor, could they not have been more proactive?

Further, and this is far more serious than anything else, why did they revealed the names of the seven athletes when they hadn’t filed the FIR? Did they not know that the matter is highly sensitive and the athletes’ safety could be in question?

With the names revealed, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) officials reached the houses of some of the complainants and allegedly offered them bribes to keep their mouths shut.Yet again we return to the same issue — empathy. The police might have been right in saying that a preliminary investigation was needed before filing the FIR, but to give out the names and jeopardise the athletes’ safety was unfair.

The matter first came to light in January when the wrestlers took to the streets in Delhi. That’s when it should have been resolved. What happened instead was an attempt to buy time in the hope that the media would move on to another story and the issue would fizzle out of public memory.

It was an eyewash; it wasn’t about according respect to the athletes. Nor was it about standing up for women and resolving the crisis. India is a budding economic power with big global ambitions. Yet, when it comes to sport and treatment meted out to our own, we lack basic sensitivity and compassion. Let’s be clear, we don’t know the truth yet. The courts haven’t pronounced a verdict. The committee reports, too, aren’t public.

What we do know, however, is that we have been shamed in front of the world. We have failed to protect the dignity of our athletes and our girls. And that’s more important than anything else.

The optics of this entire matter has been negative for India. The world watched our best athletes sleeping on the roads for days on end.

Despite the IOA being headed by a woman, this was allowed to go on. That’s where we lost the battle. We showed no empathy and failed ourselves as a collective. India as a country deserves better and so do our wrestlers. A thorough, intervention-free investigation and a definitive final result is the need of the hour. Whichever way it goes, we need to know the truth.

Spare a thought for Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia. Each a decorated athlete; they stand to lose a lot. If they lose this fight, their careers are on the line. They would be thrown out of the system and will have nothing to stand up to. It takes courage to speak out. For just that, they need empathy.

We are used to seeing them on the podium and standing up with them when the tri colour goes up. It doesn’t feel right to see them standing on the road in pain and crying out to be heard. We can do better.