OPINION: Vijendra Singh- Hero to Zero

Unfortunate is the incident of involvement of Olympic bronze medalist Vijender Singh on getting boxed in after the massive haul of over 26 kg heroin having international value of Rs.130 crores, from a flat situated at Zirakpur,  by the Punjab Police and he himself is an employee of the rank of DSP in the Haryana police by virtue of his performance in the sports activity. A vehicle was also recovered infront of the same flat which is said to be of Archna wife of Vijender Singh and taken into possession by the police. 

As per the available sources, when star boxer Vijender Singh was asked about his SUV vehicle, he said that the key of the vehicle was given one of his boxer friends who had gone to drop him at the airport. On the other hand, as per the statement of boxer Ram Singh who too had participated in the Olympics, they had taken some substance terming it as a food supplement and later on, in came to know about the heroin and denied having known prior to this. Ram Singh had admitted of having consumed one to three gram heroin which given to him by Anoop Singh Kahlon who is the smuggler of intoxicant drugs who is under arrest and main accused in this case. Ram Singh had admitted that they had met earlier also but never knew about his illegal activities.

Vijender Singh has denied all the charges levelled against him.  Though he has denied having any intimacy with Annop Singh Kahlon but as per the call details, he had talked to him a number of times, during he last five months.

Now the question is as to whether Vijender Singh is an accused in this drug smuggling or its consumption can only come to surface after the legal proceedings are finalised?  But one thing is sure that this incident has further damaged the image of sports and put a big question mark on the activities of the players and organisers.  During the last two Olympics, by winning certain medals for India, the sports environment was created in the country and created interested of the youths in the games like Badminton, Boxing, Wresting etc. and the children of middle class families have also come forward showing interest in the sports and the sportsmen like Vijender Singh, Sushil Kumar, Siana Nehwal had become their role models.  They also encahsed their distinguished image by getting the advertisement business and government advertisements, in the public interest. The sports lovers are disappointed over the activities of the sport persons like Vijender Singh.

Sometime back, Vijender Singh had appeared in the blood donation advertisement and there are possibilities of some youths might have got motivation from the advertisement and had come first to donate the blood.  But when the negative acts of such personalities come on surface, its adverse impact is definite.  It is difficult to win medal in Olympics and to maintain this image is more important.  The ban on screening of  smoking scenes in the films was raised so that the audience may not resort to that action after seeing the acts of the hero.  The film actors have logic behind this that this was the demand of the script but the heroes of sports have no such option whereas Vijender Singh has the dual responsibility as hero of sports and an officer of the police department.  He should have avoided all such activities.  Virtually, VS has become Hero to Zero. 

Over to VS!

(Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this article are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of City Air News.)