A national shame

Words that are so so familiar. National Shame. For a country that worships only cricket, it does not prick anyone's conscience one bit when its international paralympic event turns a sham.

But for those words `Bangalore, it's just not done' in the headline, it would have skipped my eye too.

Read this:

The report speaks of how international sports persons faced humiliation, got a taste of India's complete lack of disorganisation, political apathy, and openly said they would carry the story back home.

In fact, so poor was the planning of the hosting organisation Paralympics Committee of India (PCI) that the wheelchair-bound deputy president of IWAS couldn't ascend to the VIP dais because there was no ramp. He had to be lifted up the stairs by a few people. A furious Maura Strange, IWAS executive director, who was a shocked witness to the spectacle, commented tersely: "This is ridiculous. He is the deputy president!"

For God's sake, a paralympic athlete needs a ramp! All those cricket lovers out there, agreed you love cricket, but paralympic athletes are bigger heroes. They win, despite humiliation, and in spite of getting confined to wheel-chairs. Spare a thought. Protest. Protest why a politician should chair a body that must have sportspersons heading it.

It's time we hung our heads in shame.