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The recent sex scandal to hit Indian hockey is merely the tip of the iceberg
THE casting couch has always existed in Indian sports, though it takes an occasional whistle blower like woman hockey player Ranjitha Devi to take the lid off this demeaning practice. She accused chief coach of the Indian women’s hockey team Maharaj Kishan Kaushik (since resigned/sacked) of harassing her with explicit sexual requests and verbal sex talks. (When salacious details of the Bill Clinton-Monika Lewinsky affair were raging like Bush (!) fire across the United States, a wag had suggested that the Oval Office should be renamed as the Oral Office!). Ranjitha Devi’s allegations against Kaushik have stuck, as Hockey India has taken cognizance of her four-page handwritten complaint and acted upon the report of its five-member panel constituted to probe the incident to seek further investigation by the Delhi Police and the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to get at the bottom of the case. Interestingly, a few months ago, goal-keeping coach of the women’s hockey team Edward Alloycious had been booted out when he misbehaved with a Punjab goalkeeper.
But then, as Dhanraj Pillai, who led India to gold at Bangkok observed, there can be no smoke without fire. Kaushik might have looked a gentleman outwardly, but only a mirror tells the truth, as one can never say how the inner demons work in a man’s mind. Women’s hockey has always been a fertile ground for exploitation of nubile lasses, who take to sports out of sheer necessity and poverty. Girls from the tribal belts and the North-East have been the worst sufferers, as their innocence and lack of communication skills are fully exploited by officials and coaches. These poor girls have to do the bidding of such officials to play for the country. In fact, a few years ago, women’s hockey was controlled by a male official like an autocrat, who was notorious for his ways with the women players, and even women coaches and officials. It used to be said in jest that the "women had to come under him to get on top of hockey!" Playing for the country then meant a sure way to employment and salvation and that was what these poor girls wanted. And they were prepared to put up with any kind of exploitation and humiliation to make a living out the game. It was par for the course, so long as both the parties benefited. This official could be neutralised only after he suffered a debilitating paralytic stroke. Though certain things have changed for the better in women’s hockey, certain things have remained static—exploitation of women being one of them.
Hockey is not the only game where girls get exploited. In fact, sexual exploitation of women is rampant in most other sports as well. Coming close on the heels of la affair Kaushik is Olympic bronze medalist Karnam Malleswari’s charge against coach Ramesh Malhotra, who was targeting junior women lifters for sexual favours. Acting swiftly, the Weightlifting Federation of India immediately suspended him. He was presently working with the core group of lifters for the Commonwealth Games, and had twice been recommended for the Dronacharya Award. Like women’s hockey, sexual exploitation of players is rampant in women’s cricket, too. A few months ago, two women cricketers of Andhra Pradesh had charged secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Cricket Association V. Chamundeshwar Nath for harassing them, demanding sexual favours. Though the incident kicked up a ruckus in the Andhra and Hyderabad cricket circles, the official seemed to have bought his peace, as the girls have fallen silent on their complaint. Once upon a time, women’s cricket, too, was controlled by male officials, who made no secret of their taste for the "good things in life". Once, during a national camp for women cricketers in Delhi, a player confessed to a friendly official that she always carried condoms in her kit bag, as she never knew when she had to oblige an official of the cricket body to get into the playing eleven—or even the team—of the Indian squad. Such cricket officials
also encouraged the girls to lead a promiscuous life, and women
cricketers drinking alcohol used to be a common sight. Why only
players, even women coaches are not spared. Once a leading lady
cricket coach in charge of the national team was incessantly pursued
by a male official, who went on his knees to apologise to her only
after a couple of journalists tracked down the story and published it.
Now, women cricketers get a comparatively better treatment as the eve’s
game has also come under the protective umbrella of the cash-rich
Board of Control for Cricket
If team sport takes the cake in sexual exploitation of women, individual sports are no better. A former chief national swimming coach was a terror for young girl swimmers as his "glad eye" spared none. Basketball, volleyball, athletics and weightlifting, too, have their own share of sex scandals. Some personal coaches of prominent athletes used to extract their own flesh in both cash and kind for their services, though there were also father figures like O. M. Nambiar, who used to keep a protective ring around P.T.Usha, guiding her to glory during her salad days on the track. Unless the offenders are handed out severe punishment, and unforgettable lessons are taught, women will continue to be a soft target for easy play for crooked officials and coaches. It’s not only officials and coaches who are guilty of taking advantage of women, even some black sheep among the Sports Authority of India have had their share of scandals, particularly those occupying the Team’s Wing, as they had the power to make or mar the career of a woman athlete. One such official, who adorned the Team’s Wing once, now heads a prominent sports federation, which has cocked a snook at the government guidelines.
All in the game When director Shimit Amin made Chak De! India some years back, little must he have known that Indian hockey would later furnish some real scenes deserving of a possible reel sequel, Chuck De India! Given the stick-y wicket that Indian women’s hockey has gotten into recently —with even a former captain Helen Mary claiming she chucked a career in hockey because of (now former) coach M. K. Kaushik, who got cast in the role of bad boy for his risqué act with Ranjitha — this title in technicolour would certainly be quite telling. If Chak De... had a player trying to seduce the coach, this prospective art-imitating-life sequel could see the roles being reversed.
Whether or not this Chuck De... muck gets refracted through the cinematic lens is another matter. The scene that matters now is that Indian sport is busy running into sleaze scandals at a time when sports contingents across the continents are readying to do the running on our tracks in the upcoming Commonwealth Games. What a time for the Capital, already perceived to be harbouring mindsets and miscreants that think of women as easy game, to be playing host to a slugfest about un-fair play! That the fair sex runs into indecency and innuendos, from off the field to off the screen, is a known reality. The constabulary has the Ruchikas and Rupan Deols, the playfield the Ranjithas and moviedom its maids of dishonour (courtesy the Shineys and Shaktis). But the question in these sordid real scripts is not just about losing honour to the Raavans, but also about who the ultimate winners and losers are once the curtains come down on the media-powered trials, and the public, propelled again by the channels-turned-crusaders, moves on to the next show. Says sociologist Sherry Sabbarwal, "The boundaries defining sexual harassment are so fluid. What may be seen as innuendos in one case, may be friendly fun or consensual in another. These things cannot be generalised. Sometimes, the man may be victimising, in some situations, a woman may be over-reacting." Certainly, where there’s truth behind the taint, the long arm of the law must catch the hands that paw. The victim in that case at least takes home the reward of redress. There’s dignity regained, and in instances like the recent David Davidar-Lisa Rundle settlement, even dollars gained. In scandals like this though, there’s usually more than meets the eye. Eye contact across the cubicle leads to footsie in a Ferrari that suddenly gets one party crying about toes that have been trodden upon, and before you know (of) it, heads begin to roll. (Interestingly, the glad eye may have been activated, consensually or otherwise, for nearly three years, as in the Davidar-Lisa liaison, or seven months ago, as in the Ranjitha instance, but the owners of the alleged roving gaze find themselves in the eye of a storm seasons later!). The tainted head goes off the rolls or is made to cool his heels in a back-of-beyond posting. As for the trampled upon heels, they either return to or remain on the pay roll. For instance, Lisa got not just a neat package for making peace but also a return to her pay packet, whenin she was reinstated by Penguin, while Davidar ended up without cubicle or cash. Cheque mate!
Other female fondling fracas’ end not just with heads rolling but also with the errant hands being cuffed, as was the fate that befell Ruchika tormentor S.P.S. Rathore and maid ‘molester’ Shiney Ahuja. Some hands with a propensity to pinch, too, find themselves checked, with or without having to write a cheque. Former super cop K.P.S Gill knows the bottom line of it only too well: there’s a price to be paid for a pinch of passion. But in such sex sagas, the one character that often gets overlooked is the better half of the ‘molesting’ mentor or master. She ends up either as the bitter half, the braver half or simply as being better off without the ‘baser’ half. It can’t be easy to pretend before the probing cameras that the guy who got horny with the house help or a damsel the age of a daughter was a body double and not the bloke who has made your marriage a public joke. Terribly tough to stand by a guy, who, in trifling with the modesty of a colleague, reduces you from a privileged existence to a modest one by losing his bank balance to the ‘other’ woman and his cushy chair to another man. "While Hillary Clinton or Shiney Ahuja’s wife chose to stand by the scandal-hit husbands, not every wife can cope with the stigma and shame his action evoke. Tiger Woods’ marriage, for instance, couldn’t survive his sex scandal," says psychologist Gurdip Dhir. "Like the victim, the wife, too, may suffer from post-traumatic stress." Adds Sabbarwal, "It’s a catch-22 situation for the wife. If she sticks with him, she’s seen to be supporting a wrong. If she leaves him, she’s perceived to have dumped him when the going got tough." It’s win some, lose some. The winners wrap it up
the Lisa way, with "It’s about the money, honey!" Others
end up losing. A life lost, in case of the Ruchikas, a career crushed
for the Ranjithas, and a paradise lost, in case of the (Davidar’s)
Rachnas.
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The
hockey world was taken by surprise at Ranjitha’s allegation, as it
was difficult to believe that a "gentleman" like Kaushik
could have indulged in such a condemnable behaviour. For, Kaushik had
an enviable track record as a coach. He had coached the men’s team
to gold in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, though it was an ironic twist
to the tale that he was given the big shove by the then KPS Gill-led
Indian Hockey Federation on return from the Asiad for speaking up for
the players. He has been with the women’s team for the past nine
years, barring a brief break, and was considered as a coach with a
Midas’ touch. He was also the member of the Indian team who won the
gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics—the last time the country lifted an
Olympic hockey gold.
