Racist? Who?
Harbhajan and Haneef - What is common between both these gentlemen? If I would have asked this question one week back the clueless answers would have circled around the obvious facts like "their name starts with H" "they both have 'a' as the second letter in their names", "they are both Indians" and like that. Today you ask these questions to anybody who is following the news and they will say that they both are the victims of RACIAL ABUSE. Not much water has passed under the bridge since Dr Haneef's case when the Australian government agencies were first to pronounce their verdict without any proof and later have to cut a sorry face by dropping the charges. Now, they are calling Harbhajan racist but the way his case was handled surely points out to the root of racism.
Who is racist? Talking about racial abuse, I don't know what problem Symonds has in being called as monkey (I am unaware of the relation between monkey and ethnicity what I know that we all had simian ancestors, we even have monkey god 'Hanumana'). I never thought it to be a racial remark (one of our classmate keeps calling everybody as monkey) and demeaning or defamatory. Umpires were blind - acceptable, the third umpire was not even able to read braille script (he erred with the presence of technology also) - again acceptable but match referee have gone one step further and have shown signs of racism by choosing to selectively listen to selective people. Umpires didn't hear it, Sachin heard it but referee chose not to hear him and Ponting who didn't hear it, referee chose to hear him. Well, this whole 'hearing matter' was confusing and was an eyewash because it was already decided who is going to get the axe. Match referee deliberately delayed the verdict to avoid a possible walk off by the Indian team. How come a match referee can ignore the plea of Sachin and selectively listen to arguments made by Ponting who has no credibility among any of the Asian teams? Well, the whole matter shows signs of racism and that too very very focussed towards Indian players.
Harbhajan or Haneef are not the victims of racial abuse or racial discrimination, rather they are victims of a mindset which makes people point fingers at the Asians for any unexplained happening. Racial abuses have a history and and we all know which races continued to practice it as late as 1990s. Ask Africans, they are in better position to tell you. I am not so happy to see that some people like Prokter are carrying forward that legacy with them. Racism is not about saying something when provoked, it's more deeply rooted in the mindset. Or what else would explain the remarks made by the CEO of Orient Hotels against TATAs of India. Well, be it business or cricket (which is again has become more of a business and less of a game) it's a shame for India not to have put up a fight against blatant Racism all around us. I think that Sharad Powar should escalate the matter and call the tour off.
Who is racist? Talking about racial abuse, I don't know what problem Symonds has in being called as monkey (I am unaware of the relation between monkey and ethnicity what I know that we all had simian ancestors, we even have monkey god 'Hanumana'). I never thought it to be a racial remark (one of our classmate keeps calling everybody as monkey) and demeaning or defamatory. Umpires were blind - acceptable, the third umpire was not even able to read braille script (he erred with the presence of technology also) - again acceptable but match referee have gone one step further and have shown signs of racism by choosing to selectively listen to selective people. Umpires didn't hear it, Sachin heard it but referee chose not to hear him and Ponting who didn't hear it, referee chose to hear him. Well, this whole 'hearing matter' was confusing and was an eyewash because it was already decided who is going to get the axe. Match referee deliberately delayed the verdict to avoid a possible walk off by the Indian team. How come a match referee can ignore the plea of Sachin and selectively listen to arguments made by Ponting who has no credibility among any of the Asian teams? Well, the whole matter shows signs of racism and that too very very focussed towards Indian players.
Harbhajan or Haneef are not the victims of racial abuse or racial discrimination, rather they are victims of a mindset which makes people point fingers at the Asians for any unexplained happening. Racial abuses have a history and and we all know which races continued to practice it as late as 1990s. Ask Africans, they are in better position to tell you. I am not so happy to see that some people like Prokter are carrying forward that legacy with them. Racism is not about saying something when provoked, it's more deeply rooted in the mindset. Or what else would explain the remarks made by the CEO of Orient Hotels against TATAs of India. Well, be it business or cricket (which is again has become more of a business and less of a game) it's a shame for India not to have put up a fight against blatant Racism all around us. I think that Sharad Powar should escalate the matter and call the tour off.
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