Olympic Saga

Unprecedented and Bizzare are two of many terms being used for the security arrangements that are in place for the Olympic torch run. All this for a 2.5 Kms stretch.

And they say politics and games are two separate issues!

Few days back, my friend Abhay pointed me to an article by Vir Sanghvi where he logically discussed why Politics and Games cannot be (and never were) separated.

Here is the excerpt:

South Africa was prevented from participating in the 1964 Olympics after India and other non-aligned nations threatened a boycott. The South Africans were only allowed back in 1992, when apartheid was being dismantled. In 1976, nearly all African nations, not content with a ban on South Africa and Rhodesia, boycotted the Olympics because New Zealand was taking part. New Zealand’s crime was that it had allowed its rugby team to tour South Africa. Rugby is not an Olympic sport, but that wasn’t the point. The Africans said that any country which engaged with South Africa would be shunned.

This is not a position peculiar to the non-aligned movement. The 1958 Olympics were boycotted by some European countries because the USSR was taking part. The Europeans were protesting the invasion of Hungary. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared that the US would boycott the Moscow Olympics to protest the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and 80 other countries followed suit. In 1984, the Soviets retaliated by boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics.

The Chinese themselves are no slouches when it comes to boycotting the Olympics. In 1976, they threatened to boycott the Montreal Games if Taiwan was allowed to compete as the Republic of China. (The Canadians threw the Taiwanese out.) In 1980, the Chinese joined the boycott of the Moscow Olympics.


Somehow I find myself unable to associate myself emotionally or in any why with the symbolic gestures like carrying an Olympic torch or for that matter something like this! Why not just go ahead with the opening ceremony and get on with the games? Why doing this merry-go-round in so many countries and attaching so much pride and honour in carrying the torch? This pride and honour is another issue which is beyond my head. The 70 odd guys who are supposed to carry the torch on 17th April in New Delhi are the prominent personalities of their fields and are already honourable. Its only them who are taking pride and feeling honoured and not the common man (Ask those guys who will be virtually locked between 1pm and 6pm inside the buildings where they are employed just because their building happens to face Rajpath!)

Anyways! Life goes on...