The governing council of the IPL has decided against fielding Sri Lankan players in the IPL matches in Chennai after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa barred the Lankans from the state. By playing bad politics using the Tamil card Jayalalithaa is trying to gain brownie points is a fact that anyone could easily comprehend. When it is true that terrible crimes have been committed against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sri Lankan armed forces and the government, it makes no sense in barring the Sri Lankan players from playing IPL in Chennai as they are coming in their individual capacities as professional cricketers and not as representatives of the Sri Lankan government.
There is no doubt that India as a country should take tough stand against Sri Lanka and should make the Lankan government investigate war crimes. But barring Sri Lankans from playing sports in India shows poor political imagination. When the DMK has scored a point on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue by pulling out of UPA, Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK was in the lookout for an opening and chose to use IPL as an opportunity to draw level with their political rivals.
Had the Sri Lankan players were coming over to India as the representatives of the government, there would have been more sense in protesting against them. But these players are, like other ordinary people in Sri Lanka, absolutely blameless in the alleged pogrom against the Lankan Tamils. All our anger should be channelled against the Sri Lankan government who is allegedly involved in the grave human rights violation and genocide in Sri Lanka and not on ordinary people of Sri Lanka. If the public opinion in Tamil Nadu is against ordinary Sri Lankans too, it is the responsibility of the government as well as that of the political parties to put things straight and persuade people by making them aware of the facts. If a government functions based on what it claims to be “public opinion”, which could be factually and morally wrong, then it would not be able to govern with any sense of purpose.
If Tamil Nadu is not able to provide security to the Sri Lankans or if the government thinks it is wrong to allow Lankans to play in the state, then the right line of action for the IPL to take would have been to move all the matches out of Chennai. However such an action would have caused logistical deadlocks and hence the IPL governing council has decided to ask IPL franchisees not to field any Lankan players in matches that would be held in Chennai.
If we continue to change our policies and actions based on mob sentiments, it would not be long when our country would descent into chaos and disorder. It is a matter of great shame that we as a country are often threatened and intimidated by mob violence and immoral and flawed public opinion.
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