Punjabi antenna
Wake-up call on black buck
Randeep Wadehra

Punjab — a struggling sporting, economic titan. Off and on, environment-related issues have been featured on the regional television. However, for the first time, Punjab’s wildlife, especially the black buck in Abohar, has been documented in detail. The Day & Night News channel (DNN) focussed on the dwindling population of the black buck owing to perils from predators ranging from dogs and jackals to man. Although the Bishnoi community has been valiantly protecting this rare wildlife species, along with other fauna and trees, black bucks face extinction. Absence of proper protection and veterinary facilities only compound the problem. Hope this documentary wakes up the powers that be.

Although the Bishnoi community has been protecting this rare wildlife species, black bucks face extinction

Last fortnight was an eventful one. The Railway and national Budget-related headlines jostled with the Godhra judgment. DNN’s Prime Time debate dealt with these. Kanwar Sandhu focussed on genuine and relevant aspects while discussing the Godhra issue. The ongoing World Cup, too, resulted in some new programming, with Nayan Mongia giving his expert opinion on various matches.

However, PTC News kept its date with the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Punjab Games. Various events were well covered and it was good to see some known and not-so-well-known athletes basking in the limelight. However, several posers assailed the mind. What was the logic of having these games immediately after the National Games, where Punjab’s performance plummeted to the ninth position from the 2001 edition’s first? Why at all include such events like tug-of-war? As if on cue, Zee Punjabi’s Khabarsaar took up these very issues with Punjab Olympic Association’s Raja KS Sidhu. Among the other panellists were Navdeep Gill, a journalist, and Inderjit Singh, a hockey player.

The talk-show revealed that the POA does not have much say in deciding the calendar for the state’s games; moreover, it is at the mercy of the state government for funds and every other input needed for promoting quality sports culture in the state. So, while Sukhbir Badal revels in his much-hyped image of sports messiah and youth icon, the standards of sports in Punjab keep falling. It was sad to hear Raja Sidhu say that he had predicted Punjab’s fall in sports long back but nothing was done about it.

There was an interesting program on DNN that highlighted the extent of alcoholism in Punjab (subsequently, there was investigation into drug addiction, too). In rural as well as urban areas, alcoholics from all age groups are increasing in numbers. Among the reasons cited are easy availability of liquor and powerful interest groups encouraging its consumption in rural areas as well as small towns; there are other reasons, too, like peer pressure and youngsters aping their fathers.

The consequences are there for all to see — growing domestic violence, families facing financial ruin, and promising careers destroyed. Several people interviewed on the show pointed out that the government was not interested in discouraging liquor consumption as it was a huge source of revenue. If this is true, then it is the most moronic economic policy one has come across. Has any politician or bureaucrat calculated the loss in terms of man days lost due to alcoholism as well as the destruction of Punjab’s human resources — qualitatively and quantitatively?

These social as well as economic costs may be hidden but, in the long term, prove fatal to a state’s and its citizens’ wellbeing. Although the documentary was well thought out, it is not enough to show weeping women and suffering families. There is a need for revealing hard facts based on proper research. One hopes that the real costs would be illustrated in future. We have enough sociologists and economists/statisticians whose expertise in such matters can be tapped.

Punjab used to be a model state — both in sports and economic performance. But now? Alas!