It’s an unbelievable incident that would make every Indian ashamed of, and make every hockey lover fume. It occurred openly, and brazenly, that too in front of the whole Indian hockey team. A lady officer at the Special Handling desk (immigration) of the Airport Authority of India at the Indira Gandhi International Airport had the temerity to abuse the Indian hockey players who were returning from Kuala Lumpur in a Malaysian Airlines flight.
As the whole team including a few officials lined up for immigration clearance in front of her counter, the lady officer who handle such sensitive desk castigated the players for their poor performance at the World Cup. Deepak Thakur, top-scorer of the recent Junior World Cup was the first to receive her mouthful. While putting a stamp on his disembarkation card, she commented, “You are all wasting the government money”. Surprised at the suddenness and brazenness of her comment, Deepak could not find a reply. He left the counter with a weary smile.
When the turn of Kanwalpreet Singh came, the lady in her blue saree, in an unbecoming conduct of an officer, posed, ” Why should all not cover your face in shame.” Infuriated at her utterances, Captain Baljit Singh Dhillon, who in the first incident scolded Deepak Thakur for not replying appropriately, and Dhanraj Pillay, who was standing by the side of Baljit, approached the lady and asked her to keep decorum and speedy the process of clearing them. “What do you gain by insulting us”, they asked. As she still arrogantly refused to heed them, they told her, of course in a befitting rage and anger, that they had lost the tournament but had not sold the country as some of heroes in other sports had done in the recent past. This writer also joined the duo in putting the arrogant lady in her place. But, seeing the three awards winner Dhanraj ( Arjuna, Khel Ratna and Padma Shree) and ‘Arjuna’ Dhillon had to engage such a monstrous human being for their own honour was a terrible sight for me.
Sensing trouble that was brewing up, some collegues of the lady officer rushed in and tried to pacify the angry duo. All of a sudden, the lady officer, who till then was acting big, started twisting her words and even claimed that she had been wrongly heard. The players, even in their moment of anger, could not contain their laugh.
The players were already downcast after the unexpected poor show at the World Cup. Their mood was so dull that during the four hour flight time, they were hardly in their usual self. I, who insisted the travel agent to book my return ticket with the returning Indian team, found travelling with them an embarrassment as none of them were in a mood to engage in discussion. Nor was I. There was a silence all along the journey.
Such ugly incident would perhaps have not taken place had the manager or a responsible official travelled with the team. Only an umpire and a doctor travelled with the team. As we all know, the manager and coach CR Kumar had already left for Chennai from Kuala Lumpur directly, without even witnessing the Word Cup final. Suresh Sharma, Security guard of KPS Gill, President, Indian Hockey Federation, traveled with the team as a stand-in manger, but he was the first one to get his immigration paper cleared and leave the scene!.
The whole nation is shocked at our plight at Kuala Lumpur. Surely, the players would have never bargained for the type of things that had taken place in their world cup campaign. Like every Indian, they are also worried. After all, it’s they all they way who put in every hard work. Persons like the lady they encountered at the airport had only added salt to their wound. This should not have happened. India should learn to respect their heroes and stand by them in their hour of grief. This is the time they all need all our comfort and encouragement. Unwittingly, the lady had done a great damage.