It looks like India's most successful female wrestler Vinesh Phogat and 2020 Olympic medalist Bajrang Punia will contest the Haryana Assembly elections on a Congress ticket. A day earlier, cricketer Ravindra Jadeja had joined the BJP. Now both Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia met Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday. Before the meeting, news came that Vinesh Phogat had resigned from her railway job. That is, there is every possibility of both of them entering the electoral fray. After meeting Kharge, both of them have also formally taken membership of the Congress. It looks like a perfect pair. Phogat and Punia, along with Sakshi Malik, India's only female wrestler to win an Olympic medal, led the movement against BJP leader and former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Some female wrestlers had accused him of sexual abuse and harassment. If one needed an intense, practical crash course in politics, this movement had it all. The wrestlers took on a domineering political figure, took on a sensitive subject where the victims are often socially ostracised and humiliated (as is the case here). Mobilised massive support. Led public rallies. Gave hundreds of speeches and interviews. Showed the stamina and tenacity to endure sit-ins that lasted months. Faced police action and did not back down despite every obstacle thrown their way. In fact, what Indian sportspersons experience all their lives is, in a way, training for politics. Indian athletes, if they are even slightly good, by the age of 10 or 12 are indoctrinated into a system that is deeply political, deeply entangled in politics. Over the next few decades or more, they learn the ways of that system. Indian sports are entangled in politics in two ways.
Best of the best
The first way is more obvious. From cricket to boxing, football, archery, swimming, gymnastics, equestrian or table tennis, the federations governing almost every sport in the country are not only led by politicians or their cronies, but they also use them as fiefdoms, fiefdoms where political games are played. To get ahead in this system, every athlete and his family know that he must be determined, resourceful and able to keep the right people happy. Each of these qualities is also important for politics, as are the purely sporting qualities that determine athletic success – focus, competitiveness, discipline and toughness.
Virat Kohli once told me that a major moment of disappointment came in his life when he was 13 years old. He realised the level of politics and influence that influenced team selection even at the junior level in Delhi cricket. He then made a decision – become so good that even politics cannot stop you. Hone your skills to such an extent that it becomes impossible to ignore you.
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Everything else is in the hands of Rama.
Only the top 1 per cent of athletes in any sport get a chance at this level, the best of the best. For thousands of others, a government job is often a different incentive.
This is another way politics creeps into Indian sports. Athletes experience what it is like to live a political life. A government job becomes the sole goal of many athletes coming from remote villages or crowded Tier II and III cities. They often aim for a government job to escape or overcome their family history of poverty.
Some people are not cut out for politics
So do sportspersons make good politicians? Yes, although the current crop of athletes-turned-politicians paints a different picture. There is a reason behind this – as the BJP moves towards becoming the undisputed ruling political party between 2014 and 2024, it has wooed several athletes simply because of their popularity. Examples include PT Usha for nostalgia, Mary Kom for the Northeast, Babita Phogat for the interiors of Haryana, Saina Nehwal who has a national identity across India thanks to her social media reach.
This was not because these athletes showed any inclination towards politics. The oratory skills of all these athletes range from average to poor, and none of them have any clear stance or passion for any issue or problem. On the other hand, Vijender Singh, who won the country its first Olympic medal in boxing (bronze in 2008), was adopted by the Congress but has now joined the BJP.
Some players also got hit in politics
On the other hand, sportspersons interested in politics have proven themselves to be very strong. Gautam Gambhir was a combative batsman of his time, who always expressed his emotions openly on the field. He used the outspokenness present in his personality to good effect for the BJP in Delhi. The former Indian opener won the East Delhi Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 general elections. Happily, he has found an even better job suited to his temperament this year- that of the coach of the Indian cricket team. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, a 2004 Olympic silver medallist, won the 2014 and 2019 general elections and served as the Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs as well as Information and Broadcasting. Now that the Congress is finally challenging the BJP, there are reasons to believe that Phogat and Poonia will bring their combative skills to the political arena with a sharp edge.
(The author is a sports journalist)