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In some senses, it’s a typical feel-good story common among athletes from India and beyond. Ram Baboo, who won a bronze medal for India in the 35 km race-walking event at the recently concluded Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, grew up without means in rural Uttar Pradesh. His perseverance, determination and sheer will are inspiring. He comes from a family of agricultural workers; during the pandemic as the SAI stadium in Bhopal shut down, he worked as an MNREGA worker; he bought his first pair of running shoes with money earned working as a waiter in a small eatery.
What goes unsaid in all the stories about him is that Baboo was assisted by a welfare state and rights-based architecture of development. His story should also cause those who claim that welfare goods provided by the state are “freebies” or “revdi” and metaphorically in the same breath (without any thought to consistency or fear of contradiction) say that they have “given” citizens what is, in fact, their due, to pause and reconsider.
Young Ram, when he was in Class VI, cleared an entrance exam and attended Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya. He has stated that studies never really interested him, but the Centre-sponsored boarding school was also a place where he participated and excelled in a variety of sports. He dreamt of representing India in the Olympics and managed to convince a coach at the Sports Authority of India in Bhopal to mentor him. When Covid hit, when millions of workers were left without a way to sustain themselves after the surprise announcement of an ill-fated lockdown, it was the scheme that the Prime Minister described as a “living testament to the Congress government’s failures” in 2015 that ensured the subsistence of Ram and his family.
He is Ram Baboo, who once worked as MGNREGS labour and waiter. Today he won bronze medal in #AsianGames in the 35km race walk mixed team. Talk about determination and grit. pic.twitter.com/HFB6s8AUZj
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) October 4, 2023
Ram soon returned to Bhopal to continue his training and eventually, medalled for India.
So, is his success a product of a “revdi” culture? Should the political leadership and government of the day — or any in the past, for that matter — take credit for what is the story of individual achievement?
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It would take supreme arrogance, and a blinding level of narcissism to answer “yes” to either of these questions. Ram’s achievements are his own. The structures, institutions and schemes that have helped him along the way should be his rights as a citizen, a basic tenet of this country’s social contract. Without that architecture, perhaps Ram Baboo would not have found his place on the podium. And that would have been a national loss.
Of course, not every MNREGA worker and Navodaya Vidyalaya student will achieve the highest level of excellence. But then, how many of us who are more privileged are actually “excellent”? It’s the state’s job to do its best to level the playing field. It is the right of the citizen to have the opportunity to find their best selves.
We are all inspired by Ram Baboo’s tale of personal achievement. Let’s hope there are enough people in the political class who try to build a system where many more like him can flourish. And (this is likely hoping for too much) that they do so without acting like a citizen’s rights are a leader’s largesse.
aakash.joshi@expressindia.com
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