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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.

Lawless Maharashtra

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

The recent murder of veteran politician Baba Siddique, a former Maharashtra minister and a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has sparked a sharp debate over the state’s deteriorating law and order. Shot dead by three assailants outside his son’s office in Mumbai’s Bandra, Siddique’s murder casts a long shadow over Maharashtra’s once-vaunted reputation as a progressive state that was India’s commercial powerhouse and a secure haven for its citizens.


Two suspects have been apprehended, while authorities continue the search for a third. The crime branch is probing various motives, from business rivalry to contract killing linked to a Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) project.


The Opposition, from the Congress to NCP (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar have lambasted the state’s leadership for allowing such a brazen crime to occur in Mumbai, India’s financial capital. Earlier this year, Ganpat Gaikwad, a BJP MLA, was arrested for allegedly shooting a Shiv Sena leader, Mahesh Gaikwad, inside a police station in Ulhasnagar, over a land dispute. The normalization of such violence—where even elected officials resort to firearms in the presence of law enforcement—signals a dangerous erosion of state authority.


For many, the Siddique murder signals something far more ominous than just a contractual dispute gone awry. It begs the question whether Maharashtra has begun to slide into a state of lawlessness akin to the bad old days of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, states infamous for political violence, contract killings, and corruption?


Back then, Bihar’s law and order situation was synonymous with the infamous sobriquet of the ‘Jungle Raj’ where figures like Mohammad Shahabuddin wielded control through violence, using contract killings as a tool for political and business rivalries, as in the 1998 killing of Brij Bihari Prasad, a former Bihar minister, who was gunned down inside a Patna hospital. Similarly, Uttar Pradesh, once India’s equivalent of the ‘Wild West’, saw high-profile murders like the 2005 assassination of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, who was killed in broad daylight.


But Maharashtra’s law and order problem has not just been confined to political violence. A growing sense of impunity now pervades society as well, leading to a perception of a broader collapse of the social fabric. The murky attempts at cover-up in the Pune Porsche case, where the inebriated teenage son of a prominent realtor fatally rammed his luxury car into two IT professionals on a bike, underscores how deeply ingrained corruption and privilege have become in the state’s justice system. Despite widespread outrage, the authorities’ handling of the case raised questions about the state’s willingness to hold the wealthy accountable. The breakdown of law and order across Maharashtra, from politically motivated killings to the mishandling of heinous crimes, has led to an alarming perception: something is rotten in the state of Maharashtra, to paraphrase Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

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