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By:

Bhalchandra Chorghade

11 August 2025 at 1:54:18 pm

Applause for Cricket, Silence for Badminton

Mumbai: When Lakshya Sen walked off the court after the final of the All England Badminton Championships, he carried with him the disappointment of another near miss. The Indian shuttler went down in straight games to Lin Chun-Yi, who created history by becoming the first player from Chinese Taipei to lift the prestigious title. But the story of Lakshya Sen’s defeat is not merely about badminton final. It is also about the contrasting way India celebrates its sporting heroes. Had the same...

Applause for Cricket, Silence for Badminton

Mumbai: When Lakshya Sen walked off the court after the final of the All England Badminton Championships, he carried with him the disappointment of another near miss. The Indian shuttler went down in straight games to Lin Chun-Yi, who created history by becoming the first player from Chinese Taipei to lift the prestigious title. But the story of Lakshya Sen’s defeat is not merely about badminton final. It is also about the contrasting way India celebrates its sporting heroes. Had the same narrative unfolded on a cricket field, the reaction would have been dramatically different. In cricket, even defeat often becomes a story of heroism. A hard-fought loss by the Indian team can dominate television debates, fill newspaper columns and trend across social media for days. A player who narrowly misses a milestone is still hailed for his fighting spirit. The nation rallies around its cricketers not only in victory but also in defeat. The narrative quickly shifts from the result to the effort -- the resilience shown, the fight put up, the promise of future triumph. This emotional investment is one of the reasons cricket enjoys unparalleled popularity in India. It has built a culture where players become household names and their performances, good or bad, become part of the national conversation. Badminton Fights Contrast that with what happens in sports like badminton. Reaching the final of the All England Championships is a monumental achievement. The tournament is widely considered badminton’s equivalent of Wimbledon in prestige and tradition. Only the very best players manage to reach its final stages, and doing it twice speaks volumes about Lakshya Sen’s ability and consistency. Yet the reaction in India remained largely subdued. There were congratulatory posts, some headlines acknowledging the effort and brief discussions among badminton enthusiasts. But the level of national engagement never quite matched the magnitude of the achievement. In a cricketing context, reaching such a stage would have triggered days of celebration and analysis. In badminton, it often becomes just another sports update. Long Wait India’s wait for an All England champion continues. The last Indian to win the title was Pullela Gopichand in 2001. Before him, Prakash Padukone had scripted history in 1980. These victories remain among the most significant milestones in Indian badminton. And yet, unlike cricketing triumphs that are frequently revisited and celebrated, such achievements rarely stay in the mainstream sporting conversation for long. Lakshya Sen’s journey to the final should ideally have been viewed as a continuation of that legacy, a reminder that India still possesses the talent to challenge the world’s best in badminton. Instead, it risks fading quickly from public memory. Visibility Gap The difference ultimately comes down to visibility and cultural investment. Cricket in India is not merely a sport; it is an ecosystem built over decades through media attention, sponsorship, and mass emotional attachment. Individual sports, on the other hand, often rely on momentary bursts of recognition, usually during Olympic years or when a medal is won. But consistent performers like Lakshya Sen rarely receive the sustained spotlight that their achievements deserve. This disparity can also influence the next generation. Young athletes are naturally drawn to sports where success brings recognition, financial stability and national fame. When one sport monopolises the spotlight, others struggle to build similar appeal. Beyond Result Lakshya Sen may have finished runner-up again, but his performance at the All England Championship is a reminder that India continues to produce world-class athletes in disciplines beyond cricket. The real issue is not that cricket receives immense attention -- it deserves the admiration it gets. The concern is that athletes from other sports often do not receive comparable appreciation for achievements that are equally significant in their own arenas. If India aspires to become a truly global sporting nation, its applause must grow broader. Sporting pride cannot remain confined to one field. Because somewhere on a badminton court, an athlete like Lakshya Sen is fighting just as hard for the country’s colours as any cricketer on a packed stadium pitch. The only difference is how loudly the nation chooses to cheer.

A Government on Leave

Infighting, indiscipline and administrative chaos in Congress-led Himachal Pradesh expose a state teetering on the brink of collapse.

Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh

In Himachal Pradesh, governance seems to have taken a long vacation. Over the past week, the Congress-led state government has made headlines for the spectacular implosion within its bureaucracy and police forces. The sudden forced leave of the state’s police chief, the additional chief secretary (home) and the Shimla superintendent of police amid a high-profile death investigation is a sign that no one, including the Chief Minister, is in charge any longer.


The death of Vimal Negi, a senior engineer whose body was found in Gobind Sagar Lake, spiralled into an open turf war within the top echelons of the state’s police and administrative services. The spectacle would be almost comical were it not so tragic: a superintendent publicly attacking his superiors in a press conference; a police chief undercutting his own force in a court affidavit; an additional chief secretary bypassing the advocate general’s office. Each of these actions alone would be considered insubordinate. Taken together, they point to an executive that has lost all semblance of control.


Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, whose image as a strong administrator has been fraying for months, appears now merely to be reacting to crises. His decision to send all three officials on leave was presented as a firm exercise of authority. In reality, it is the bureaucratic equivalent of switching off the lights and hoping no one notices the fire. The real embarrassment here is that the government let it fester until it became a judicial and political embarrassment. The order to the officials to “proceed on leave” came only after the state high court intervened and handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.


The state’s response reeks of panic rather than purpose. The mass reassignment of portfolios and the temporary elevation of vigilance officers to key posts might keep the machinery running, but it won’t restore credibility.


The Congress, reeling from electoral setbacks nationally, should be particularly alarmed. Himachal Pradesh was one of the few states where the party could still claim a toehold. But Sukhu’s tenure has been marred by crises of both confidence and competence. Earlier this year, a bitter intra-party revolt had reduced his government to a minority for several precarious weeks. Now, administrative anarchy has overtaken political instability.


The Vimal Negi case, in which crucial evidence in the form of a pen drive was allegedly deleted from the record, has become emblematic of this dysfunction. For a grieving family and a concerned public, the only solace has come from the court-ordered handover to the CBI, which is in fact a damning vote of no-confidence in the state’s own investigative capacity.


Chief Minister Sukhu’s defenders argue that cracking the whip on senior officials shows his intolerance for indiscipline. But discipline without direction is meaningless. Leadership is not demonstrated by belated punishment but by the ability to prevent implosion in the first place. And when the most senior civil servants and law enforcers in a state resort to airing grievances in public and undermining each other in court, the problem lies not just in the ranks, but at the very top.


As the Congress high command surveys the wreckage in Shimla, it should ask itself a simple question: can it afford to let this farce continue? If Sukhu cannot command respect within his own administration, he cannot be expected to govern the state. If his appointees are not up to the task, they must be replaced and not reshuffled. And if the party continues to treat Himachal Pradesh as an afterthought, it will lose the state not to the BJP’s strength, but to its own misrule.


In the hill state of Himachal, the snowball of administrative dysfunction has turned into an avalanche. It is now up to the Congress to decide whether it wants to dig itself out or be buried under it.

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