The right kind of cheering

We should seriously consider setting up a government ministry to oversee how sports fans behave, and support the Indian team

I have no interest in sports. This used to bother me when I was young, not because it felt as if there was something wrong with me, but because it made it harder for me to connect with most of my peers who would froth at the mouth or shudder with excitement whenever a big cricket match or football game loomed on the horizon. Despite this lifelong lack of interest in watching men and women hit balls, kick balls, or throw balls for a living, I was still appalled to read a recent report involving a few sports fans. They happened to be students, and the report maintained that they had been arrested for celebrating the victory of an opposing team after a recent cricket match.

According to the police responsible for these arrests, the students had been guilty of “promoting enmity and cyber terrorism”, which was surprising because this didn’t fit the standard explanation for either accusation. I assumed the police knew best though, given how the force routinely attracts the best and brightest among us, so I knew the students must have done something worthy of being associated with terrorism. Yes, a significant number of us may have been labelled enemies of the state and anti-national elements over the past few years, but this doesn’t mean we should question the police or the government, should it?

The jailing of those students wasn’t a problem for me either, because I now believe we should all be in jail for a few weeks every year, if only to acclimatise ourselves to that environment in preparation for the India of tomorrow. Incarceration is overrated anyway, and everyone knows the best way to a stable job as a politician is via a jail cell, so I don’t see what the big deal is. It can be looked at as a viable stepping stone for some careers, provided a little time and care is spent on marketing these stints a little better. I have no doubt that will happen soon enough.

To get back to my original source of angst, what appalled me wasn’t the jailing of those students, but the fact that people like them even exist in our modern, progressive country. It is a slap in the face of every Indian parent because it shows that not enough is being done to indoctrinate the youth and point out the risks of such behaviour. Today, they may cheer another team for being better than our own. Tomorrow, they may even start to think for themselves, and we all know how destruction lies down that path. If Indians start to think for themselves, our country will never be a developed nation.

I have come to the conclusion that sports fans need to be sent to a training academy of some sort, managed by a separate government ministry. This may sound absurd, but it is only the truly absurd ideas that make sense in these challenging times. Sports fans can be dangerous because they tend to celebrate teams or individuals who perform better than everyone else. What they should be supporting instead is the Indian team alone, irrespective of how our players perform against anyone else. In fact, I believe the Indian team should be supported even when it isn‘t participating in an event, game, or tournament. To not do this is to send the wrong message to young fans who may start to believe that it is okay to support great players rather than Indian ones.

As for the students who have been sent to jail, I hope they can use this time judiciously to try and understand why they needed to be arrested. To let them go about their business would be the real crime, because it would tell the world that we are a democratic, tolerant, secure nation. It is the kind of ridiculous message that undermines the deep insecurity underlying the essence of being Indian. It is only by being insecure that we can push forward, and the government of India is doing the right thing by making us all walk backward instead of forward.

I have begun creating posters congratulating the Indian team for its performance in the Olympic Winter Games of 2022. Our country has not participated in most of the games at this competition and didn’t win on the two occasions it did send athletes. That doesn’t matter though. I intend to cheer for the Indian team even if it isn’t playing because I am a patriot.

When he isn’t ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.

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