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FROM
THE EDITOR IN CHIEF
Sports
stinks in India. Something which should be the pride of the nation is
so often a cause for shame. So, when the well-known athlete Milkha Singh
who very narrowly failed to win an Olympic medal in 1960 cries foul over
the Arjuna Award the stench of all that is rotten in Indian sports engulfs
us again.
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The second issue of the India Today Advantage |
It tells us why a billion-strong nation had to
remain content with one measly bronze medal in last year's Sydney Olympics.
It tells us why we are not able to transform the talented into champions.
Like most other institutions, the story of Indian sports is a familiar
tale of nepotism, sloth and incompetence. Most important, it is also afflicted
by the greatest Indian curse-politicisation. Sports administrators become
more important than sportspersons and promote their own selfish interests
rather than the sports they are meant to oversee.
Associate Editor Sharda Ugra, who has often complained
of the enormous public indifference to all sports other than cricket and
tennis, brought her considerable knowledge of India's neglected sportsmen
and women into this week's story. Our story chronicles how the Arjuna
Awards-a good idea when they were initiated way back in 1961-have been
so utterly devalued. "The story would be quite farcical if it wasn't
so terribly tragic," says Ugra.
Meanwhile, we have started an initiative to
bring news closer to the younger generation. In May this year, we launched
a magazine titled India Today Advantage, which has been distributed
free to select schools. It is a bold and innovative concept to help students
make sense of the changes taking place around them. Hopefully, it will
foster an abiding interest in current affairs.
(Aroon
Purie)
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