Mary Kom’s misery

It is unbelievable but true. Two-time World Boxing Champion Mary Kom has been offered the job of a police sub-inspector by Manipur Government. Whether Mary Kom will accept the offer or not it is entirely her decision, but to many the offer sounds ridiculous. In India, we have plenty of sports lovers but very few sportsmen of international repute. For a country having a population of more than 100 crore, this is definitely not a healthy sign. Not to talk about US or China, even smaller countries like South Korea or Japan are ahead of us in sports.  We have only one silver medalist in the Olympics. Earlier India used to dominate in Hockey, but after 1980 we have not achieved anything substantial in that discipline too. But the situation is changing. Today’s sportsmen appear to be more determined than their predecessors. Some of them like Anju Bobby George or Sania Mirza have done well in Athletics and Tennis.  While Anju is a Bronze medalist in World Long Jump Championship, Sania is ranked below 40 among the women tennis players. Their efforts are more praiseworthy as whatever they have achieved, they did it of their own, without getting much support from their respective associations or from the country.

It’s a pity that sports lovers of the country do not put Mary Kom in the same bracket along with Anju or Sania, though her achievements are no less inferior to them. The golden girl of Manipur is dominating the world boxing scene for quite some time now. She is the reigning World champion as well as Asian champion. She is undefeated at the international level for nearly four years now. No other Indian sportspersons have such records. Yet she is often forgotten while taking the names of outstanding Indian sportspersons. This apathy was reflected in the decision of the Manipur Government while offering her the job. After winning her second World Championship Gold, Mary Kom made it clear that she needs a job. But the response from her State is quite perplexing. Manipur Chief Minister Ibobi Singh may think that he has done a great job by offering Mary Kom a job at the time of need. But the offer is insulting to say the least. Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh is working as a DSP in Pnjab police. Few other sportspersons are working with railways and various public sector units, though their achievements are no way near to what has been achieved by Mary Kom. By the same yard stick, she definitely deserves a better reward. Will the Manipur Government act now?

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