Olympic Bronze way too expensive!!

So, here again we go again, we have another medal for our country.

Sushil Kumar won the bronze for himself and did India proud, and within minutes of his winning, the ministries and other associations from all over India started showering him with insane amount of money as rewards for his achievement. And by insane amounts I mean sums as much as 1.85 crores of Rupees (that is what I had heard last night on television)!

This really disturbs me for more reasons than one.

Firstly, I completely believe that efforts and success should be recognized and suitably rewarded, but there should be some sanity in it. I think it is also unfair to the other participants who could not win a game because winning is so much dependent on spur of the moment performance. And when you bring stories of athletes like Monica Devi, all this looks even more vulgar.

Secondly, with huge sums of quick money, comes power and aggression. Who can guarantee that Sushil is capable of the responsibility that comes with it? And now since he will get an out of turn promotion to being the DSP, there are all the more chances of him getting into a power trip.

Thirdly, I wonder if the state realizes that the money it is so proudly distributing is actually the money of the hard working citizens of India who are diligently paying their taxes with a hope that life in India will eventually improve – that the common man will get electricity, water, food and education – it is totally unacceptable to allow the states to throw up enormous amount of money this way to just one athlete – ( If you really come to think of it, 1.85 crore is more than the combined income of a mid sized village taken over 50 years!)

I totally respect Sushils achievement, and rejoice on his success, however, I think he should have been given a permanent job and additional perks involving education and food, so that he could concentrate on his game without worrying about his family’s basic necessities.

I had written a similar post when after the T20’s how our cricketers were honored in a similar fashion.