IPL is not above General Elections 2009

There is no need to hold IPL during general elections. IPL is not about national pride. It is just a money making venture by entertaining public whereas general elections decide the future of a country.

IPL is owned by BCCI. BCCI has banned ICL players from representing India. How can players of Indian origin be banned from representing “India” just because they play for a private league? No Government authority has authorized BCCI to use the “Team India” tag. I am making this statement based on the information I have obtained under the RTI Act, 2005 from Minister of Youth and Sports Affair, Government of India. That being the case why should the whole of India put itself at a security risk just for an exclusive organisation.

In some places of India, loss in a cricket match leads to rioting and IPL with its strong regional affinities is exposed to this risk. Thus, IPL matches should not be held on the previous day as well as on day of the polling.

Most of the BCCI bosses are active politicians. Thus, the chances of spectators of IPL getting influenced by a politician’s contribution to IPL cannot be ruled out.

The issues raised by political parties would be lost in the din of IPL craze. Further, the audience for political rallies is likely to suffer because most of them would be busy seeing IPL.

Various non-governmental organisations are running numerous campaigns to increase the percentage of voting. Their publicity budget can never match that of IPL and hence would go unnoticed.

IPL has promised to increase its security budget by 10 times. Despite their assurance, the Government is obliged as per protocol to provide state security as and when foreign dignitaries visit our country. The foreign players in IPL are no less than Ambassadors of their country. Hence, the state is obliged to provide security and that is likely to reduce security for the voters as well as the leaders. This situation is not applicable and any untoward incident will put the entire country in an embarrassing situation.

It is elections which make or mar a country and the need is to encourage participation. Anything which has scope of reducing participation/interest in it should be put on hold. It does not matter if a few cash rich franchisees lose a few crores of Rupees. In the days of economic downturn wherein thousands of jobs read livelihood are lost in a day, the loss would be small change for the cash rich franchisees.