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Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Unsung Champions

The Commonwealth Games have once again reminded India of a sporting truth that is too often forgotten amid the deafening roar of cricket stadiums, billion-dollar leagues and celebrity endorsements. The greatest sporting stories of at the CWG have emerged from dusty fields, improvised training grounds and lives shaped by extraordinary adversity. India’s athletes in Glasgow have rewritten the meaning of sporting triumph. The story of Sharmila Dhankar is nothing short of extraordinary. Struck by...

Unsung Champions

The Commonwealth Games have once again reminded India of a sporting truth that is too often forgotten amid the deafening roar of cricket stadiums, billion-dollar leagues and celebrity endorsements. The greatest sporting stories of at the CWG have emerged from dusty fields, improvised training grounds and lives shaped by extraordinary adversity. India’s athletes in Glasgow have rewritten the meaning of sporting triumph. The story of Sharmila Dhankar is nothing short of extraordinary. Struck by polio at the age of two, having endured the trauma of an abusive marriage, she could have been reduced to a statistic in a country where disability and social barriers often combine to crush ambition. Instead, the 40-year-old from Haryana transformed pain into power, producing a season’s best throw of 9.81 metres to become India’s first para-athlete to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal. Her victory in the women’s shot put F57 event was a declaration of human resilience. Sharmila’s journey, from physical disability and personal hardship to the top step of a global podium, captures the very essence of sport. Her compatriot Shilpa Shyla’s bronze medal in the same event added another chapter to this inspiring tale. Together, the two Indian women demonstrated that determination can overcome disadvantages that would have stopped many others. Sarvesh Kushare, who won a historic silver in the men’s high jump, comes from a farming family in Maharashtra’s Nashik district. His early training ground was not a sophisticated sports facility but makeshift pits created from agricultural waste by his father. Gulveer Singh’s magnificent silver in the men’s 10,000 metres - India’s first-ever medal in the event at the Commonwealth Games - was another reminder that Indian endurance athletes, often overlooked in a cricket-obsessed sporting ecosystem, possess the talent and tenacity to compete with the best in the world. These athletes represent a different India that battles scarcity, limited facilities and social constraints before it battles opponents on the track or field. Their medals are not products of privilege but triumphs of persistence. For decades, cricket has deservedly enjoyed its place as India’s most popular sport. But the imbalance in attention, resources and public imagination cannot continue indefinitely. A nation of 1.4 billion people cannot measure its sporting identity through one game alone. The Commonwealth Games have shown India a mirror that reflects not just medals, but the immense human potential waiting beyond the spotlight. The achievements in Glasgow should become a turning point. India must invest more deeply in athletics, para-sports and Olympic disciplines, not merely when medals arrive but when dreams begin. Because every Sharmila Dhankar, Sarvesh Kushare and Gulveer Singh represents the extraordinary sporting potential of India waiting to be unleashed.

Clever seat selection helped BJP to secure historic win

The party won 65 seats against Congress, 37 against NCP (SP) and 29 against Shiv Sena (UBT)

Clever seat selection

Mumbai: The BJP’s strategic seat sharing with the allies has proved beneficial for the party. An analysis of the Assembly election results show that the BJP has scored over its main rival, the Congress, in a big way because of the direct fights.


The analysis shows that BJP defeated all three constituents of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) – in the direct fights. This is attributed as one of the reasons for the BJP’s historic poll success.


The BJP contested 147 out of 288 seats. In 76 constituencies, it faced Congress. BJP secured victory in 65 seats and lost only 11 seats, making it a whopping 86 per cent of the total direct fights. This was followed by an even stronger performance against NCP (SP). Of the total 39 fights with Sharad Pawar’s party, BJP captured 37 seats making it 95 per cent of the total fights with NCP (SP). BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) were head-to-head in 32 constituencies, of which BJP emerged victorious in 29 seats, making this 91 per cent of the total direct contests.


According to a BJP strategist the party had bargained hard with its allies, Shiv Sena and NCP to get the desired constituencies in the seat sharing formula. “We had studied to potential candidates of the MVA. That helped us in choosing the seats where we can register comfortable victories,” the strategist said.


BJP spokesperson Niranjan Shetty attributed the success to all the party workers who worked hard to boost development, infrastructure in the state. He gave credit to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his contribution to the party’s success.


Shetty pointed out that in 2019, Uddhav Thackeray had stalled all the “novel” and “legendary” projects that Fadnavis had started when he had taken over as CM, making it very easy for the people of Maharashtra to strike a comparison between both the leaders and the potential they had for serving the people. “Devendra Fadnavis gave up his post very easily for the larger good. There are many such examples like Venkaiah Naidu who was BJP National President and later worked as the Vice President of India because that was the need of the hour. We seldom care about our posts,” Shetty told The Perfect Voice.


Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe refused to call the election results as the people’s mandate. “This is not at all a Janata mandate. Despite Maharashtra struggling with so many basic social issues, how can BJP acquire such a huge mandate is the question. If a student copies and fails with just passing marks, it can go unnoticed, but if a student copies and bags the number one position, something is fishy. Why is the BJP scared of ballot papers?” he said.

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