Chaubey, much-travelled former goalkeeper, is now much-travelled AIFF president. A born-again BJP member who made it to the highest office in Indian football due to his party affiliation despite little or no time spent as a football administrator, Chaubey would have looked on wanly at Jeakson’s action. Or turned a blind eye only to rain retribution later.
Jeaskon, a midfielder hailing from Manipur’s Thoubal district, where one person died in police firing as renewed violence flared on the day that he was proving a calming influence in India’s midfield against Kuwait in the final, decided to drape himself with the Salai Taret, a century-old flag which depicts Meitei ethnicity. With the act, the 6-ft-1 midfielder would tower over the field, but not before inviting the wrath of Kuki-led groups online who’d begin decrying it as propaganda, a dog whistle of sorts to fan more violence.
Was he being woke or was it spectacular tone deafness from a 22-year-old footballer betraying the complex ethnic contexts dividing his state? Somewhere, one guesses, it was plain game smarts. Because what else could Jeakson do? How better to show the mirror to the government by choosing just that moment the powers love to appropriate: an Indian sporting victory.
And even if it is treading that fine line, with a flag that belongs to his ethnic group, if it works, it gets you the attention. It is unfortunate that the Kukis, marginalised in the north-eastern state and forever demonised as being militant immigrants who have trickled in from Myanmar, are not likely in these current times to get the platform that a Meitei footballer playing for his country can. Jeakson recognised that he did and used it to make a statement somewhere larger than India’s fine victory.
It would also help that Jeakson enjoys a special status in Indian football annals — he is the only Indian male to score at a World Cup. He headed in against Colombia at the U-17 World Cup six years ago in Delhi. On Tuesday, he was appealing to the same powers in Delhi to help prevent his state from burning away.
He’d make his angst clear. “It’s my Manipur flag. I just wanted to tell everyone in India and Manipur to stay in peace and not fight. I want peace,” he would tweet later, “By celebrating in the flag (sic), I did not want to hurt the sentiments of anyone. I intended to bring notice to the issues that my home state, Manipur, is facing currently. This win tonight is dedicated to all the Indians.”.
The violence has been hammering away at Jeakson’s mind, as it would have with most sportspersons from the region. That he has been able to play with distinction over these last two months is testimony to his mental fortitude and maturity. A month earlier, on June 6, he had tweeted that he was “exceptionally disheartened to witness the ongoing violence and destruction in our motherland, Manipur”.
What followed would be an implicit message hiding in plain sight. “It’s a matter of absolute shame that some of us still believe that the heinous acts of killing and burning each other will bring about a solution,” he wrote, echoing perhaps the concerns of his sporting tribe. For nearly two decades, over half India’s footballing ecosystem has been sustained by footballers from the north-east.
The current Indian team is a microcosm of how India should be, not of new India but of a regular, everyday idea. It’s unfortunate even to have to point that out. India’s fine equalizer against Kuwait was created off a move that involved two Muslim players, a clever pass by a cosmopolitan veteran from Delhi and finished off by a Mizo from the hill states. It smacked of a seamless unity, now under strain in current-day India.
In all this, a thoughtful, worried youngster, after performing his national duty, chose to make a symbolic statement with whatever he had at his disposal. We should stop and pay heed to his plea before it is too late.
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