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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.

Licence to Pollute?

Delhi’s bungled fuel ban reveals the chaos of half-baked green governance.

Delhi
Delhi

When the Delhi government abruptly banned the supply of fuel to older vehicles at the beginning of the month, it was hoping to send a firm message that it meant business in its war against air pollution. Instead, it sparked outrage across the National Capital Region (NCR), prompting an embarrassing retreat just days later. Faced with legal challenges, technological shortfalls and political heat, Delhi’s Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa assured citizens that their vehicles would not be impounded and that a “new system” was being planned.


It was a remarkable climbdown less than a week after the government’s own campaign had begun. At the heart of the controversy is India’s perennial struggle to reconcile its environmental ambitions with the reality of inadequate infrastructure, limited state capacity, and deeply embedded social norms. The ban, which sought to enforce longstanding Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal (NGT) rulings restricting diesel vehicles older than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15, was directed by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), a central authority overseeing air quality in Delhi-NCR. But in its haste, the implementation exposed how even well-intentioned policy can falter when saddled with bureaucratic overreach and technological optimism.


The idea was that petrol pumps would be prohibited from supplying fuel to “End-of-Life Vehicles” (ELVs). Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) systems were installed to verify vehicle age, and violators were to be issued fines or have their vehicles seized. But in practice, the scheme was half-baked. The ANPR cameras were glitchy, poorly placed and functioned inconsistently. More problematically, the system had not been rolled out uniformly across NCR. Border towns such as Noida, Faridabad and Gurugram were either unequipped or non-compliant. That created the perfect conditions for fuel smuggling and cross-border evasion.


Even ministers within the Delhi government were uneasy. India’s vehicular pollution problem is complex, tied not just to the age of the vehicle but to how it is maintained, what fuel it runs on and where it operates. Many older vehicles on Indian roads are still mechanically sound, and banning them en masse runs counter to a longstanding culture of repair, not replacement.


The backlash soon turned legal with the Delhi Petrol Dealers Association challenging the mandate in court by arguing that fuel station operators, who are private entities, were being arbitrarily tasked with enforcing the ban without legal authority. The petition warned of confusion, unfair penalisation, and an undue burden on petrol pumps, which see thousands of vehicles daily and cannot be expected to monitor compliance with perfection.


Even Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena intervened, urging Chief Minister Rekha Gupta to halt the ban. Saxena’s letter struck a populist chord, noting that many middle-class families had sunk their life savings into buying vehicles that were now being summarily outlawed.


The CAQM, sensing the backlash, eventually agreed to delay the ban’s implementation until November 1 and to roll it out simultaneously across all six NCR cities - Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, and Sonipat. It was a tacit admission that the original strategy had been neither fair nor enforceable.


Delhi’s air pollution is no trivial matter. According to the WHO, the capital ranks among the world’s most polluted cities. But piecemeal bans, rolled out without coordination or preparation are unlikely to make a dent. A systemic solution must involve cleaner fuels, better public transport, real-time emissions monitoring and behavioural change - none of which can be outsourced to a glitchy camera or a harried petrol pump attendant.


India’s green transition is often framed in terms of grand targets: net-zero by 2070, EV adoption, solar gigawatts. But the battle will be won or lost in moments like these. If Delhi’s policymakers are serious about fixing the capital’s toxic air, they would do better to begin with enforceable, equitable regulation and not blunt instruments masquerading as climate action. Until then, the only thing Delhi seems to be running on is confusion.

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