Editor,
What exactly is the idea behind the Durand Cup in Shillong? A major sporting event should bring people together, create excitement and allow the public to participate in and celebrate the occasion. Instead, the manner in which the tournament is being conducted appears to be creating inconvenience, secrecy, restrictions and an unnecessary culture of VIP privilege.
There are several questions that concerned residents of Shillong have a right to ask. Why, for instance, should hospital rooms be reserved for “VIPs” at the expense of ordinary patients? At the Civil Hospital, Shillong, patients who had already booked rooms were reportedly informed that the rooms could not be provided to them because they had been reserved for VIPs associated with the Durand Cup. If this is indeed the case, it raises a fundamental question: why should an ordinary citizen’s access to a public hospital be compromised for a sporting event?
The questions do not end there. Why is an event being held in the city being presented with so many restrictions on information and access? Media persons attending the matches have reportedly been told that they can write about the event but cannot take photographs or videos, with the involvement of the military being cited as a reason. What exactly is the logic behind such a restriction? If the event is being hosted for the public, why should the media—the very medium through which the public learns about it—be treated with suspicion?
There is an important distinction between legitimate restrictions on commercial recording and restrictions imposed on news reporting. It is understandable that exclusive broadcast and digital rights may entail restrictions on spectators and non-right-holding creators commercially recording, live-streaming or uploading match footage. But imposing restrictions on journalists and local news organisations seeking to report on the event is an entirely different matter. Requiring media personnel to obtain official clearance through the organising committee simply to gain press-box access is, at best, bizarre for an event that should be seeking wider public engagement.
Then there is the curious spectacle surrounding the event itself. Banners, gates and publicity material across the city prominently display the photographs of the Chief Minister and the Sports Minister. One cannot help but ask: is this really about celebrating football and the players, or about celebrating those in power? The sportspersons who are actually competing should be at the centre of a sporting event. Instead, the political faces associated with its organisation appear to occupy much of the visual space.
The organisation of the tournament has also brought considerable inconvenience to residents, particularly through traffic disruptions when VIPs, including military and armed forces personnel, move through the city in cavalcades accompanied by sirens. Security requirements may certainly be necessary, but should a sporting event become another occasion for normalising an elaborate VIP culture in a city already struggling with traffic and other basic urban problems?
What is particularly troubling is the apparent lack of transparency surrounding the event. Information available online appears limited, with much of the coverage coming through official channels, selected social media pages and media organisations. For a tournament of this scale, there should be more information, more openness and more public engagement—not less.
The Durand Cup is an important sporting institution, and bringing it to Shillong should have been an opportunity to create enthusiasm for football, encourage young players and bring communities together. It should have been an occasion that the people of Shillong could feel belonged to them.
Instead, if residents are left dealing with restricted access, traffic disruption, hospital inconveniences, media restrictions and a conspicuous display of VIP culture, then it is legitimate to ask whether the event is serving the public or merely becoming another platform for political publicity and institutional prestige.
We are not Europe, and there is little reason to blindly imitate models of sporting organisation that prioritise exclusivity over accessibility. Our strength should be our ability to make public events genuinely public—open, accessible and participatory. A football tournament should be about footballers, supporters and the community, not about barricades, VIPs, cavalcades and photographs of politicians.
The Chief Minister and the government would do well to ask a simple question: when the public is being inconvenienced, the media is being restricted and the players themselves appear secondary in the publicity, who exactly is this event being organised for?
A sporting event should win the affection of the people, not leave them wondering why they have been kept at arm’s length from an event taking place in their own city.
A Concerned Citizen
Laitumkhrah, Shillong
