As the curtains fell on the Paris Olympics, the 17 days of awesome performances by highly energetic contingents from across the world ended with the usual medal tally — in which the US and China bagged the top positions, winning 126 and 91 medals respectively. India ended up with six; one silver, five bronze and no gold. Curiously, by virtue of its one gold win, Pakistan finished 62 in the 2024 medal tally, leaving India further down at the 71st place. Even small countries in Asia performed better than India. South Korea won 32 medals, of which 12 each were gold and silver. Australia, with a population of 2.5crore ended up with 53 medals, of which 18 were gold and 19 silver. At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, India had won seven medals — one gold, two silver and four bronze – and ranked at 48. This time, the performance fell further. Through successive Olympics, the nation of 1.4billion fails to make a mark. In Asian Games too, India continued having a modest show. What matters is performance — not big talks for which we as a democracy specialize in.
Obviously, India’s poor performance at such global events is proof of the long road ahead for it to traverse and reach up to what it hopes to be – a Viksit Bharat or Developed Nation by Year 2047, a century past the Independence or Self-Rule. Drumbeats of India readying to jump from fifth to third position in global economic power status in another three years are, sadly, tamed by the realities on the ground. It’s all right for those at the helm to claim they are working wonders. The script is all too familiar from the time when Indira Gandhi promised ‘garibi hatao’ and won parliament elections in the 1970s. Some 80 percent of Indians today lead a hand-to-mouth existence, many not having two square meals a day. Large segments of the youths are not productively engaged and laze their time away. The 10 years of the two Modi-terms worked no wonders on the performance front of Indian youths, overall, as is evident from the Olympics show too. Narendra Modi quietly carried forward the archaic systems left behind by the UPA governments. There has been no palpable improvement in multiple sectors.
The meddling by politicians in sports bodies has been its main curse. This includes the IOA as well. They want to have a finger in every pie; and they would not allow professionals to manage the affairs of even talent-nurturing entities. The nation must create conditions to do better not just in Olympics, CWG and Asian Games, but in every sector of human engagement to realise the full potential of its youth and the goal of a Viksit Bharat.
