The Financial Times on the politics of the Modi cricket stadium
The new cricket stadium in Ahmedabad which hosted the third India v England Test this week, and will host fourth Test next week, seats over 100,000 people at full capacity (which in present circumstances it is not).
It was named this week after the Indian PM Narendra Modi. Cricket writers noted the point with some bafflement but the Financial Times (27.2) provides both background detail and an Editorial judgement.
Before he became PM Modi’s local base was in the area and he ran the Gujarat Cricket Association. When Modi became a politician on the national stage, his close colleague Amit Shah took charge.
Stands at the ground are named after leading businessmen. Meanwhile Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah is Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Attempts have been made to make sure that proper governance rather than just political preferences are to the fore but the FT notes that even critics concede that at least Modi and Shah did get the stadium built and open. One thinks of Boris Johnson’s various, failed, schemes.
The Editorial is strongly critical of Modi.
It notes that despite his huge ego Trump didn’t manage to name any particularly significant buildings or places after himself while in office. Stalin did but that didn’t last.
It concludes:
Modi’s act of vanity is part of a wider effort to rewrite the country’s history and sense of self. And if you are building a cult of personality why not link it to the country’s sporting obsession? But the move might also be added to the growing list of warning lights that are already flashing about the state of Indian democracy.
For there is one other reason why political leaders start naming places after themselves while they are still in power. It is that they are not confident their nation will be quite so keen to honour them once they have gone.
The problem Johnson has about naming a rugby, football or cricket stadium after himself is that he has to get it built first. Nothing in his career to date suggests that would be a likely achievement.
Leave a Reply