Monika is lucky that the people of Manipur and indeed a good section of the Northeast, identified their own sense of victim-hood with her sorry predicament. Perhaps there is an element of truth in this perceived sense of hurt too, for victimisation has been obvious not just in sports, as was well illustrated by the ugly episode in which a Naga woman journalist was not allowed to enter a South Delhi lounge bar Urban Pind by its management because “she did not have the right profile”, while her non-Northeastern companions were. Perhaps in the end, even Indian sports, would have much to thank the sensitive reaction in Manipur to the manner in which the career of a local athlete is being destroyed so recklessly. Without such expression of outrage, the corruption corroding the top institutions of sports in the country would never be challenged enough to provoke the establishment to rethink, thus making more hapless athletes vulnerable in the future. It may be noted that the Manipur chief minister, Okram Ibobi, has in a press conference in New Delhi today, made known his government’s decision to move the Union government to have the CBI probe the incident.
