All this has to change some day

The reports on the plight of India hockey hit the newspaper headlines everyday

If I understand correctly, the present crisis in Indian hockey is on account of non-payment of the normal dues to the players. It appears to be some sort of bureaucratic bungling. It must be happening to other games too. Since hockey is our national game and this time the players refused to budge, the issue seems to have drawn media attention. Pathetic !!

The other day Prime Minister Sh Manmohan Singh mentioned about freeing science from the bureaucratic clutches. Well, who stops him doing that ? He runs the country ! I remember, few years back, Sh Bajpai, erstwhile Prime Minister, also expressed similar feelings. Are they indeed helpless before the powerful bureaucracy or just the crocodile tears ? one wonders. It only shows that the persons in power can play with everything, even judiciary, Rathore (DGP) case is a classic example. A good democracy always has checks and balances on the use of authority by the public servants.

All this has to change some day. In democracy, the ultimate power lies only with people, provided they exercise it through ballot box. But in a country like India, where voting percentage never exceeds 60%, most candidate get elected on the support of the minority of the population. In such situation, expecting accountability from the elected representatives will be asking for too much; bureaucrats only fall in line.

Should we think about changing our national game ? I am not clear as to how these so called "national" things were decided earlier; say national game, national bird. Going by the logic, the game which is played and popular nation-wide should become a national game. Hockey certainly does not qualify that test. Why not collect national level statistics through census ?

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