On Monday, Twitterati lashed out against Union sports minister Vijay Goel after a Press Information Bureau photo tweet of the minister at the inauguration of the 2nd T20 World Championship for the Blind went viral. To one’s mind, for a Sports Minister to choose to play cricket while being blindfolded can only be described as insensitive, derisive and highly irresponsible. It does not “level the field”, and it certainly doesn’t break any barriers between those who have vision and those who’re visually impaired. In fact, it makes it worse. To post a photograph of Goel, knee-bent and blindfolded, not only makes him look ridiculous, but it conveys disrespect and insincerity towards the visually impaired cricketers. http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/web-edits/the-many-gaffes-of-indias-sports-minister-4499568/ vijay-goel-759
To be clear, it mocks them. Goel received a deluge of criticism over Twitter. By means of a clarification, he soon shared a tiny, important detail — he was requested to do so by the Blind Cricket Team officials. Goel’s ridiculous performance was apparently a part of a larger, on-going campaign where Indian cricketers (such as Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli) had been requested (and, therefore, have participated) to play blindfolded with the visually impaired, perhaps in order to “encourage” the blind. Dear @ShekharGupta & @BDUTT I was requested by @blind_cricket officials to play w/ the players in that way to encourage them. Also check pic pic.twitter.com/LTFcCHrzEm — Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) January 30, 2017 Playing cricket wid my visually challenged colleagues. pic.twitter.com/BxiRH6Aki2 — Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) January 19, 2017 So, the important question to ask is this: Why does such a derisory campaign exist in the first place? And if it does, why do individuals like Goel or Kohli encourage it, let alone participate in it? For it undermines the hard work and efforts put in by the visually impaired to reach the level of efficiency in order to play the game. Interestingly, the officials at the Blind Cricket are gifted with vision. They’re the ones seen standing behind Goel in the picture, grinning widely. This campaign, therefore, is akin to a poor mimicry of a talented coterie of cricketers who, unlike Goel, cannot see. This, however, isn’t the first time Goel has been embroiled in controversy. He has had an impeccable record for committing pitiful gaffes. A little over a week ago, he tweeted a painting which depicted a woman in a burqa with another woman in a cage. The text that accompanied the painting was, “This painting tells a story similar to Zaira Wasim’s. ?????? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ????? ??? ??? ??? | More power to our daughters!” zaira wasim, vijay goel, zaira wasim twitter, vijay goel twitter, goel wasim twitter, dangal actor zaira wasim, sports minister vijay goel Sports minister Vijay Goel (left) and Dangal actor Zaira Wasim Thankfully, Wasim (the actor who beautifully portrayed Geeta Phogat in Dangal) was affronted and called him out: dangal, Zaira Wasim, Zaira Wasim dangal, Zaira Wasim in dangal, aamir khan, aamir khan dangal, aamir khan news, dangal news, entertainment news Zaira Wasim (File) : “Sir, with all respect to you, I feel I must disagree. I request you not to connect me to such a discourteous depiction. Women in hijab are beautiful and free.”] While on the surface of it, the tweet could have been interpreted as an innocent message – a few words of encouragement sent from an older, father-like figure to a 16-year-old. But it was suffused with multiple meanings. The painting depicted a co-relation between women, patriarchy, oppression and Islam. Personally, I find it hard to hold one particular religion responsible for suppressing women. The system of oppression is universal and has been present in several religions, including Hinduism. But that’s a separate issue. What’s problematic was that Goel felt the need to define a co-relation between Wasim and the painting. Yes, she is a Muslim, but her identity is not grounded in that alone, nor is it limited to it. As a people, we need to think beyond religion and politics, particularly when it comes to appreciating women for their work. Goel’s insensitivity is distasteful. So distasteful that it could be likened to the puerile nature of a child desperate for attention. In the past, he has misspelled the Indian athlete Dipa Karmakar’s name, while tweeting about her at the Rio Olympics in 2016. He further made a embarrassing mistake as he wished luck to athlete Srabani Nanda while posting the image of Dutee Chand with it. If I had a message for Goel, it would be: More work, less tweeting. He should focus on making exemplary improvements in department of sports in India. He should focus on ensuring that the training space and conditions for our athletes and players are safeguarded. He should work towards ensuring investments are made in purchasing better equipment ad hiring world-class coaches, so that our athletes can win finally win more gold at the Olympics or any other international event for that matter. But in the meantime, he should get someone to vet his tweets – and official tweets on him – before they’re released into the public space. © The Indian Express Online Media Pvt Ltd -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. 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