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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.

Ashes and Answers

The Ahmedabad plane crash has prompted a state-led overhaul in victim support and aviation oversight.

Gujarat
Gujarat

In the aftermath of the Air India Flight AI 171 calamity that occurred in Ahmedabad, the Gujarat government has emerged not merely as a peripheral aid centre but as a central coordinator in managing the aftermath, thus transforming a state tragedy into a blueprint for rapid-response governance.


The crash, which claimed the lives of more than 270 individuals aboard and on the ground, has jolted not only aviation authorities and corporate headquarters, but also the state and local bureaucracy, which scrambled to mount a rapid and unusually coordinated response. In the weeks since, India has begun to draw lessons from the disaster about the fragility of high-tech aviation, the importance of local governance in moments of crisis and the need for systemic reform in both prevention and response.


Gujarat’s authorities established on-site death-certification desks, allowing families to receive paperwork and logistical support at hospitals without visiting multiple offices.


The integration extended to village patwaris issuing family relation cards on the spot, easing inheritance and estate issues. Thousands of DNA samples were collected in a coordinated effort with the Civil Hospital alone recording 47 matches.


That said, a number of relatives of the deceased have voiced frustration at delays. While the DNA matching, normally a 72-hour process, has been expedited, it nonetheless remains painstakingly methodical.


The Gujarat relief machinery has also fielded emotional aid. Officials have formed 230 teams, each led by deputy collectors or tehsildars, to support families through ambulance facilitation and grief counselling. Mental health relief has become a core element of their strategy, acknowledging trauma not only for mourners but also for survivors of the hostel buildings hit by the jet.


The disastrous incident has led, in many ways, for the Gujarat government to set the template for national structures currently taking shape to manage the aftermath of such events.


A fairly unprecedented parliamentary committee is being assembled to quiz Air India, Boeing, and the DGCA, aiming for enhanced aviation safety measures from take-off protocols to maintenance audits. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has tasked a multidisciplinary panel to complete a probe within three months.


The pressing need of the hour are wide-ranging institutional reforms. On the operational front, the DGCA has mandated additional inspections on Air India’s entire 787 fleet. Eight aircraft have been checked so far, focusing on potential issues with engine thrust, flap mechanics, and take-off configurations.


Yet the more remarkable story unfolded in the hospitals and municipal offices. Drawing on hard-earned experience from past disasters, officials moved quickly to sidestep India’s notoriously sclerotic bureaucracy. The ‘single window system’ for death certificates and insurance claims has been extended to include help desks staffed by nodal officers from New India Insurance, LIC, and HDFC Life - all set up at the Civil Hospital. Thus, what might have been another bureaucratic logjam has become a prototype of responsive governance.


Meanwhile, the state’s ATS and NSG quickly retrieved the plane’s black boxes and the digital flight data recorder. Their recovery from the rooftop and tail section was a crucial step in aiding relay to the AAIB and contributing to the preliminary probe.


Gujarat’s governance choreography under pressure has attracted nods for its precision and empathy. Its disaster management template, which has been a fusion of hospital-based services, legal expedience, psychological relief and frontline coordination, may now inform national protocols and international best practice for aviation disasters.


Yet authorities face pressing practical challenges. Identification delays persist and families wait to perform rites together. There are questions that loom, like how deeply will safety reforms penetrate the tangled web of maintenance regimes, and will Gujarat’s crisis management playbook endure beyond this tragedy?


Still, the most lasting impact may not be in the air but on the ground. In a country too often paralysed by post-disaster administrative inertia, the handling of Flight AI 171’s aftermath offers a model of what a responsive, human-centric state can look like. The integration of technology, forensics, and local governance created a rare moment of dignity amid devastation. That it took a tragedy to reveal this capacity is a sobering fact.

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