Editor,
As a woman who has represented Meghalaya in cricket, I wish to express my sincere thanks to MCA President James Sangma for the decisive actions he has recently taken, dismissing the Head Coach and Assistant Manager Sanjay Mondal, and the suspension of Honorary Secretary Rayonald Kharkamni. For those of us who have worn the Meghalaya jersey, these are deeply meaningful steps that we had begun to believe would never come in all these years that we suffered.
For years now, women cricketers in the MCA have operated in an environment that was indifferent to our safety, and at worst actively hostile to our dignity. Leave aside hygiene, health or nutrition. Those seated in positions of power and administration gave zero importance to making the experience of representing Meghalaya one of pride and security. We were expected to perform on the field as professionals while enduring conditions off it that no professional sporting body should ever allow.
The findings of the Meghalaya State Commission for Women have now confirmed what many of us already knew and wanted for the public to know. The MSCW report, which found the Honorary Secretary guilty of negligence and cover-up in the matter of harassment, is a validation that is both welcome and painful. Welcome because the truth has been formally recorded, and painful because it took this long to arrive. But I would like to commend the U23 Women’s Team for showing this level of courage while speaking truth to power.
I urge the authorities through your esteemed daily, to not stop here. The MSCW report is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of one which will reveal many more dark secrets if investigated.
Other wrongdoings have been happening within the MCA for years, and one name has been common across many of them: that of Secretary Kharkamni. I will speak of one matter that I know to be true from my own experience and from the experience of fellow players. During training camps held ahead of tournaments, women players were often coerced into having alcohol and attending so-called social gatherings to “relax” and “enjoy”. This was done at the direction of or with the knowledge of the Honorary Secretary who attended these events himself. When we hesitated and pushed back; when we said that we were preparing for a tournament and that this was not appropriate, the response we received was dismissive: that it was MCA money being spent, not the Secretary’s personal funds, and therefore no one was really losing anything. The implication was that our objections were irrelevant. That our bodies, our preparation, our athletic discipline – none of it mattered. More inappropriate was MCA money being used for alcohol.
This is not the environment in which sportspersons can be expected to perform. How are players supposed to give their best on the field when they are being psychologically broken by the very environment in which they are supposed to be developing as athletes?
And it was not only the alcohol. During camps in the Ri-Bhoi district, players were put up in hotels that were, to put it politely, entirely unsuitable for any decent person to stay. The MSCW report has corroborated this and spoken about the questionable activities that take place in these hotels where players were put up. This is absolutely accurate. The conditions were troubling. Complaints were raised and they went all the way to the Honorary Secretary’s level. No action was ever taken. And on more than one occasion, Secretary Sir himself was present in these establishments. The complaints therefore were not merely unaddressed; they were ignored by the very person to whom they were directed, in the very locations where the problems were occurring.
Our lived experiences as women cricketers in the MCA have been terrible and traumatic. And the cost of this has been borne not by those who created it, but by those who endured it. By young women who loved cricket, who wanted to represent their state, and who found themselves navigating a system broken at its foundations.
I am grateful that this is beginning to change. The MCA under its new President James Sangma has made a fresh start, and the disciplinary actions already taken are proof that the new leadership takes its responsibilities seriously. We who suffered for so long because of bad administration hope that the investigation does not stop at the surface so that it does not affect current and future players. A deeper inquiry into the full range of irregularities within the MCA is necessary if genuine reform is to take root. There is too much noise and misinformation out there, but for those of us who have been associated with MCA, we have known and seen the truth for years now and we know who is responsible.
All players should have reasons to be proud of the jersey they wear. We hope that what has begun will not falter, and that the MCA never sinks again to the depths it had sunk to before.
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request (A concerned woman cricketer of MCA)
Via email
What Single Document Makes Me an Indian Citizen?
Editor,
I had just today cancelled an international hotel reservation I made through Booking.com. Thank goodness, I had not gone through booking my air tickets for my proposed foreign travel! And the reason for this cancellation is very, very serious. What I feared was that on my return to my country (I still hope it’s my country), I may not be allowed to re-enter by the Indian immigration officials at the airport counter, as my Indian citizenship may be in question! All I have to produce, by way of documents, is my Aadhaar card, my voter ID, my PAN card, my Retiree ID card, my Driving Licence, and even my CKYC card – all of them put together do not prove that I am a citizen of India as per the Government of India and the Supreme Court!
I wonder if our PM, our External Affairs Minister, and other members of the ministry have other documents, unknown to us, to prove that they are citizens of this country?
Yours etc.,
Eugene D. Thomas,
Shillong – 6.
El Nino Effect is Happening
Editor
This year’s El Nino is one of the strongest in history and it is likely to have a tremendous impact on the monsoon in India. India being a tropical country, has always had a severe summer season with scorching heat. If the following monsoon is not effective, people will have to bear the brunt. Over the years, El Nino has tightened its grip and consequently many parts of the country do not get sufficient rain. In India lakhs of hectares of cropland depend on rain. Deficit rainfall leads to crop failure and farmers suffer huge losses. June is slowly passing by without good rain and it is a clear indication of El Nino’s impact. In such a crisis, the Central and State governments must take people into confidence and convince them of El Nino’s impact and its consequences. As rivers dry up and the requirement of water increases, it may lead to conflicts. Inter-state conflicts over river water sharing may intensify. Given that El Nino’s impact may continue till February 2027, how the country is preparing and planning to face it is a significant matter. Questions like how people will cope with water scarcity and how it will affect people’s health and food production remain unanswered. As there is no solution to climate change, people need to face it and governments need to find ways to mitigate it.
Yours etc.,
Venu GS
Kollam
