Rio 2016: Narsingh-Inderjeet are nightmares Indian sport did not need
If one needed to get a "high" before the Rio Olympics starting on August 5, 117 Russian drug cheats and India's own medal prospects Narsingh Yadav and Inderjeet Singh have just done that.
In the build-up to the Olympics, the stories which one writes are usually feel-good and building-up-the-hype types.
Be it sporting giants USA, China or Russia, speculation begins on who will deliver and what kind of records could be broken.
For sure, we know champion Michael Phelps is past his prime but the American giant still has plenty of juice left in him where the symphony between his leg beat and the arm pull is a treat to watch.
To be sure, there is nothing today in sport which jolts you more than what the Russians have done.
It's nothing short of a state-sponsored doping programme with scant respect for the principles of clean sport.
That the high profile WADA (world anti-doping agency) came down heavily on the Russians is proof that however much you try and educate athletes around the globe, cheats will not learn.
The worst fear for Russia was that no athlete would be allowed to compete in Rio.
It would have been the biggest setback to Olympics and the Olympic Movement since the 1980 and 1984 Olympic boycotts.
However, the International Olympic Committee, after much deliberation, did not decide to punish Russian athletes en bloc.
The list of 117 athletes who have been forced to stay back in Russia has famous names.
That track and field stars were the biggest offenders says a lot about the "sporting system"!
In addition, cyclists, weightlifters, rowers and many more that were tainted were not cleared for Rio.
The message from the international sporting fraternity with WADA as the leader in policing is very clear: there will be zero tolerance for cheats in sport and for the future of the Olympics, it is imperative hard measures are taken.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, a powerful man in the world today, has said the decision of banning his athletes is a hard one.
Yet, given the geopolitics of the region and the mood in Europe as a whole today, there is none who will sympathise with Putin or his shamed nation.
With dope setting a kind of prerecord for the Rio games, the focus will be on real records in various arenas at the Olympics.
Records will be broken; there will be several human interest stories and more.
Yet, when we turn our eyes towards India, I would blame Narsingh Yadav and Inderjeet for whipping up all the negative press in print and electronic media as well as the powerful social media.
Just imagine what kind of a setback these two men have provided for India's campaign.
To flunk dope tests for anabolic steroids means they are serious offenders and all claims of food being laced with drugs, conspiracy and hatred from rival athletes are hard to digest.
The rule is clear. The onus is on the athlete to stay clean and drug-free.
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| Shot-putter Inderjeet Singh. |
Blame games and rhetoric will not work, and at the same time shedding tears on television will not change the image.
Surely, India, which prides in itself on PM Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat campaign being an important project, needs to extend it to Indian sport as well.
If the WADA had done wonders to nab cheats in Russian sport, we must compliment its Indian arm, the NADA (national anti doping agency) and the accredited lab (NDTL) near the Nehru Stadium for showing due diligence.
Allegations have been made that samples could have been tampered with in the NDTL.
This is preposterous as I have been to that lab way back in 2010 when MS Gill was the sports minister.
The testing lab is a fantastic one and the security apparatus is in place with proper coding and so on.
Every dope cheat in the world from Ben Johnson - dubbed the fastest junkie in the world at the 1988 Seoul Olympics for using stanolozol - to Tour de France crook Lance Armstrong - said they were not guilty!
Yet, when proof comes and hits you, there is but no choice but to accept the offence and face the shame.
Narsingh and Inderjeet are nightmares which Indian sport did not need.
Humans have an inner conscience, and if you are a sporting hero, you need to have a much cleaner inner conscience as you are not only answerable to yourself and the inner soul but also to the outer world.
If adulation and awards, praise and plaudits, give the athlete a high, doping is a shame for not just the athlete but the entire society and nation.
Wonder how Narsingh and Inderjeet speak "within" these days.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)