We play for the country.
We are sportspeople, we don’t represent a particular political party, we represent the country.
The youth looks up to us. So when you’re going through distress, unrest in the country, you can speak against the violence. I am not asking you to take sides or say whether the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is correct or not, but the way the students are being treated is not correct.
We live in a democratic country. It is our right to protest. Violence of any sort should be condemned, that’s the basic. The reason why athletes should protest or condemn is because we are the peace ambassadors of our country to the world. We roam around the whole world, people know us as Indians. Many won’t know me by name because names are difficult to remember. But they know where I am from. If we don’t condemn violence, who will?
I really don’t know why athletes are afraid to come out and condemn violence. What is at stake? Your training and performance is in your own hands. What would you not get? You might not get an award or something.
Any violence, rape or murder, condemn it. Why do you want to play it safe? When I condemned the Kathua rape, people said I am anti-national. Why did sportspeople not speak out against the rape? Because it got political? Whoever is condemning something bad in our country is anti-establishment. That’s become a culture. How am I anti-establishment?
{{/usCountry}}Any violence, rape or murder, condemn it. Why do you want to play it safe? When I condemned the Kathua rape, people said I am anti-national. Why did sportspeople not speak out against the rape? Because it got political? Whoever is condemning something bad in our country is anti-establishment. That’s become a culture. How am I anti-establishment?
{{/usCountry}}If a hundred people stand together, then they can’t victimise one person by calling them anti-national. We have to stand united, especially now that there is unrest in our country.
I want to believe the police. But I saw the video of JNU violence where the miscreants were marching out and the police was standing, not arresting or charging. The ones who did this may be from the left or right, but where are they? Why haven’t they been caught yet? It’s confusing and people are getting confused.
I ask my fellow sportspeople to condemn the violence and stand with the students. They are just like us—young, and the future of the country. They would be representing us in the world.
We need to have empathy. Where has the empathy gone? Are you not feeling bad for a woman who was beaten and was bleeding? In sports, we have learnt about team spirit. Where is that team spirit of society gone now? If we keep quiet, people will lose faith. We need to speak up.