Friday, March 20, 2009

Is IPL more important than Elections?

These days Lalit Modi is busy motivating himself to hold the second season of his brain child IPL and having frequent meetings with various top government officials scheduling and rescheduling IPL for the second season. Chidambaram on his part has done a decent job in trying to ensure that IPL goes on as usual (inspite of facing shortage of security personnel) so that the organisers don't incur huge losses. If the Indians considered IPL more important than the elections scheduled later next month then we really need to introspect as to which is of a higher priority?

Many of them would say its better to go to the stadium and watch IPL rather than go and vote for the politicians who will disappoint us as always and we say they are going to loot us as always. Well then we need to ask ourselves are we not being looted here again by going to watch IPL? The answer is a big "YES". By giving up our basic fundamental right to watch the IPL you are making few others rich who is as bad as the politicians we scold. Lalit Modi makes crores at the expense of die hard cricket fans like us who are willing to make him richer and not getting anything in return for making him richer except losing precious time and increasing his coffers. There are many cases pending against Lalit Modi(was given in detail in OUTLOOK recently) and he was also known as the Super Chief Minister of Rajasthan when Vasundhara Raje Scindia was CM due to his proximity to her and he has probably made the same amount or much more in a very short span of time which our politicians have made slowly over the years. Contrast this to our politicians for whom we go and vote on the given day agreeing to the fact that they may not deliver and make a lot of money but here you get to use your basic fundamental right and your representative from your constituency may take up your problems with the government(as he is at the voter's mercy literally our mercy since he has to decide whether he has to retain his seat in Parliament or Assembly before he comes back to the voter for the next election) and try to do something whether he does it or not? You may vote for a guy who helps in forming the next government whose support can either help make or break a government. The government which is formed post elections will do its best to ensure the economy grows, implement policies which may be favourable to us and give us tax relief, give us jobs, give us better roads etc. though finally we'd end up criticising the government for evrything because we as citizens would prefer to go and watch Dhoni, Yuvi, Gilchrist and others hitting the ball all over the ground as we believe that we are going for something which is very important in our lives.

At the end of all this what is it that we gain from sacrificing our voting right and going for IPL? The answer is obvious Lalit Modi and co become richer along with a few top cricketers. And with all this comes a cost of additional tension for the security personnel to guard the celebrities who come to play and the IPL board has ordered for bullet proof vehicles for the safety of players at the expense of the junta's contribution. Given both the cases what would you as a citizen prefer? To make a few individuals richer or get something in return which is rightfully yours either through good roads, jobs, prosperity of your nation and a better standard of living.

Inspite of all this many of them would forgo their fundamental right and go for entertainment and when the next government is formed we'd get back to doing what we love the most "Government Bashing". Well probably for once let us try change by using our fundamental right as it is not going to make a difference in our attitude as we would continue government bashing, after all thats what is the advantage of a democracy. Let it not be for the want of trying and see if it can make a real difference for a change.

So people decide whether you want the concentration of wealth to be in the hands of already wealthy people who would become wealthier directly with our money or would you like your wealth to increase which can become a reality if you choose between the two given alternatives? Does this ring bells about something called Opportunity cost??? Cheers!!!

4 comments:

  1. I like the way you ended it :)
    For me it is first the basic right but then i can't give up the sport either.on the day,yes go and vote.... :)
    i really don't mind cricketers making more money (i have thought over that a million times but nothing can be done about it).they are providing me entertainment and excitement (i'll take it till there) but yeah the money they mint can well be used for other 'improvements'. open to discussion.

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  2. @Rajeev

    Nothing against cricketers making money but when people like Lalit Modi make hay what do we get in return depriving ourselves of other better things which would give us something in return. As you know I'm a die hard cricket fan as well but probably at times when we see somebody else making millions at our expense, makes me wonder?

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  3. Sridhar,

    Ironical as it may seem, even after writing about this, you will religiously watch the IPL. How much every you talk about it being a waste of precious time and so on and so forth, you will fall for the temptation. It isn't Lalit Modi's fault, it is ours. He just knows how to tap into our soppy pleasures and make money out of it. You can blame him all you want, it won't help. You will be attracted to it over and over again. Its that whole concept of elasticity.

    This is all part of the fact as to which one appeals to the common public. You bring up opportunity cost, think about the basic concept of utility maximization. An average Indian is much more comfortable worrying about cricket than the elections, or is better off arguing about politics at home than going out to vote. Ask anyone around you and they will say- even if I vote, it won't make a difference. There's a billion of us. Strange it all seems, doesn't it?

    I am not sure if all of this made sense, but its ridiculous how much time we spend talking about all of this but nothing ever makes a difference. We really are bound to thinking that writing on our blogs will make a difference. Fat chance! I am not trying to demoralize your effort, please don't get me wrong, I hope you see my point though.

    Speaking of the IPL- how ridiculous is it that it got moved to South Africa? Its the Indian Premier League, whatever that means, not the World Cup. Insane.....

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  4. @Shreya
    By moving the IPL to SA the organisers have shown that it is their vested interests which comes first and if they were really concerned about the Indian cricket fans I'm sure they would have postponed it and somehow managed to hold it in India. This reason of tight Intl schedule is only an excuse and the government never stopped them from hosting it in India they just said postpone it as they don't have the sufficient security personnel required since they would be on election duty. See they have already postponed the IPL by a week saying the hosts need time well I'm sure they could have hosted it in India but greed greed...Regarding people not voting this time the no. of voters registered has increased a lot and is an encouraging sign but yes to get the majority of the people to vote will take more time...Hopefully they'd realise the freedom of voting someday...

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