India went gaga on Saturday evening. The jubilation survived the night and spilled over to the morning and was carried forward over television sets. Everyone patted their own back for the Gold that Neeraj Chopra won for India in the last lap of the Tokyo Olympics. “We did it”, and we carried with us two Silver and four Bronze as the curtain fell on the grand show. Elsewhere, there was palpable gloom. China got more Gold than the US, 38 against 36, and the Americans were upset. US took more medals than China, 108 against 87 – and the Chinese were upset too. The jubilation here will continue for some time and then India would go back to slumber and wake up by the next time the Olympic bell tolls for another show – Paris 2024. All said, India improved on its previous abysmal tally. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Indian tally was no more than a Silver and Bronze each. In 2012 at London, India lifted two Silver and four Bronze. That was the best number India had ever had, save for a Gold by Abhinav Bindra in the Beijing Olympics. India took one small step forward this time in terms of medal tally.
Notably, after Narendra Modi took charge as Prime Minister in 2014, and after the Planning Commission was renamed NITI Aayog, this institution aiming at national rejuvenation had, at its outset in 2016, set for India a target: 50 medals for the 2024 Olympics through a progressive improvement in the performance of Indian athletes. Two years later, at Rio in 2016, it was a near-total washout. There is nothing to suggest that the present performance will help India substantially raise its stake in another three years’ time – for the 2024 event. India had joined the Olympics for the first time in 1900, four years after its formal start, and took two medals. Till the time of the Tokyo Olympics this year, India’s total medal tally at all the Olympics put together was just 28, including the Gold that Bindra lifted in 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Olympics is just another barometer for the hopelessness that India is today; a nation messed up by wayward, corrupt and dynasty-minded anachronisms for over 70 years. Merit is overshadowed by increased indulgence in nepotism, which has become a way of life here. The huge funds earmarked for sports are going down the drain – a part of it pocketed or pilfered, a part of it unutilized and some part misused. The results are there for all to see. The problem with India is that politics subsumes everything; sports included and there is scant respect for professionalism.