Save our heroes from temptations
“A prominent Indian coach was jailed on a bribery charge. He has caught redhanded taking a bribe of Rs. 150,000/-. He punched one of the police officers on the face and tried to flee” reported the Special Broadcasting Service of Australia.
“The Indian foot ball coach arrested for taking bribe will also be booked for assaulting a senior police officer” reported the Daily Times of Pakistan.
The coach in question Subhas Bhowmick, ace India football player in the 70’s and the present coach of the famed East Bengal club in soccer crazy Kolkotta. Subhas is also a Superintendent of Central Excise in the Anti-evasion wing.
His arrest has attracted attention in the National and International media, basically because of his fame as a foot ball player but substantially also because of the fact that he is an officer of the much maligned Customs and Central Excise department.
The department can proudly claim to have in its rolls some very good sportsmen and of course some not so good ones. While the department should encourage the talented sportsmen and may be, even honour them with promotions and perks but in its own interest the department should also be very careful where these officers are posted. The really good sportsmen will hardly have any time for departmental work and when they are posted to sensitive positions like anti-evasion they are easily tempted into undesirable activities which would lead to such undesirable results. If it is true as reported in the International press that Subhas tried to punch the CBI officer on his face, perhaps CBI should be grateful that Subhas did not treat him like a foot ball.
A reporter asked Subhas, “Did you conduct the mock raid alone or were there some other officials with you? “. His reply,” Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear what I said? The matter is sub-judice”.
When famous cricketers are appointed as senior officers in banks, the job assigned to them closest to a banking transaction would be to autograph new account pass books. P.T. Usha can perhaps run faster than some of our trains. But the Indian Railways would never risk handing over the job of running trains to her. Protect our sportsmen. Let’s not post them in places where they will find it more lucrative to raid a factory than raid the opposite party in the playground. They are too precious to be picked up by CBI and every time such a thing happens, the sagging prestige of the department takes another nose dive.