FOR AS IF it is its policy, the Congress party has been pressing for imposition of strict lockdowns in most States around the country, even though it may in power in some of those. On the face of the demand, it appears fairly logical that the country’s oldest party is seeking initiatives to break the ugly virus chain through lockdowns. This stance of the Congress party, however, is quite confusing in the sense its leaders have spared nothing to blast the very idea of lockdown earlier. It appears that the party is not actually interested in improvement in the overall condition but in opposing whatever the Central Government under Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi does. The current insistence on lockdown appears to have stemmed from the idea of opposing the Centre on whatever pretext. If the Centre does not favour lockdowns as they tend to disturb the economy and sociology, the Congress seeks immediate implementation of that very idea which it opposed tooth and nail earlier. This kind of approach to politics will benefit none, but the Congress leadership does not seem to realise it, much to everybody’s annoyance.

 

 

INDIA’S foray into organisation of World Boxing India Championship on May 1 is rightly expected to be a game-changer for the country that has a good number of world-class boxers in both men’s and women’s categories. In this particular event, India’s two top women professional boxers -- Chandni Mehta (light weight) and Suman Kumari (feather weight) -- will be in the ring to establish who is better. India has often encouraged boxing as a sport, and many Indian boxers -- men and women -- have turned professional in the past some years. In the process, they have generated enough popular interest in professional boxing in the Indian youth. The main motivation, of course, has come from Vijender Singh who turned pro by spurning an otherwise promising career in world boxing in which he won a medal, too, in the Olympics. The contest between Chandni Mehta and Suman Kumari, too, would generate a lot of interest among both, boys and girls, to take to professional boxing. It is only natural that the Indian boxing establishment looks to the event as a possible game-changer. Of course, boxing is a tough sport, but Indian youth is good enough to take to it in both its forms, amateur and professional.