SpeakOut: The Season Finale - Mohun Bagan V Bhaichung Bhutia

First let us define our limitations. We know only what has been said to us so far from either end. We know Mohun Bagan's side of the story and we know Bhaichung Bhutia's side. We also know that their stories overlap to a certain degree and we also know that their stories do not tally with each other on several points.

So all we can do at this point of time is infer from what is available to us.

First off, we know that Mohun Bagan had agreed to let Bhaichung Bhutia go for that reality dance show ‘Jhalak Dikhla Jaa’ on the agreement that the Indian international captain does not miss training sessions or matches and remains committed to the club. Well, understandably it was going to be fun for Bhutia, who was perhaps looking to gain some good publicity for himself and also promote football among more than a billon cricket-crazy people.

Initially it was all fun and all goody-goody stuff. Frankly, no one was going to lose anything and even if Bhutia did have to miss a couple of training sessions, the Indian football icon had enough quality to compensate for that. Also, as everyone had thought at first, Bhutia was not going to be in the show for long: he didn't know how to dance and although the show is arranged in such a way that the audience’s votes count a lot, it was hardly plausible that Bhutia would gather enough votes to stay in the competition for three months.

Only, he did, which implied that he had to rush from Kolkata to Mumbai more often than what was initially thought, which resulted in him allegedly missing more training sessions. But the fact is that initially Bagan did allow him to go for the dance programme on the condition that he didn’t miss training sessions, which Bagan now say he did.

The I-League ended back in April and it’s been one whole month now. Bagan kept quiet all this time and have only now opened their lips after Bhutia skipped the exhibition match in Jalpaiguri and it seems that this was the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Now, looking from Bagan’s perspective, you might just admit that they are not really wrong, if  you can trust them. Bhutia missed training sessions which he shouldn't have and also missed the Jalpaiguri match which didn’t go down too well among the locals.

The problem is that Bagan, as big a club as they are, have acted unprofessionally and weirdly. First off, they are late in their complaints. The Jalpaiguri match was certainly not as important as the I-league fixtures or the training sessions or the AFC Cup matches were and month back no one knew that they were dissatisfied with Bhutia.

Then, Bagan have accused Bhutia of not being committed enough and have also alleged that it was because of him that they had lost the I-League when they struggled towards the tail-end of the league campaign.

And both the accusations are wrong. Okay, Bhutia might have missed some training sessions but when it comes to commitment, you can hardly point even your little finger at the man who has done more than his share in developing Indian football. Moreover, his performance against Dempo, Chirag, Vasco and JCT were fine and upto the mark.

And when it comes to Bagan losing the league because of Bhutia, well, you might as well believe that bloke who says that the Holocaust never happened. The Kolkata powerhouse didn’t lose because of Bhaichung Bhutia; they lost in spite of him. In quite a number of matches in that record ten game winning run in the league the Mariners escaped from jail and did have Lady Luck playing her charm on a few occasions. But then after that demoralizing 3-0 defeat to East Bengal on February 22 the Mariners were found out and started to stumble.

Now suppose Bagan had won the league, then would they have said that they won because of Bhutia? The question is a rhetorical one of course.

No, it’s not that Mohun Bagan are completely wrong but it is the way that they have conducted this entire matter that they seem to have done all the wrong. All those who have made themselves heard on this subject have voiced their concern over the way in which it was handled, implying that Bagan are at fault here. Getting at a no-one-knows-what’s-his-name footballer is one thing, getting at one of the best ever Indian footballers is quite another.

Bhutia's contribution to this mess cannot be denied as indeed if Bagan are true, then he did miss more training sessions than he should have. Yet the naiveté and absurdity with which Bagan have conducted themselves have turned virtually everyone in Indian football against them.

But then again, Indian football is getting some good publicity now because of this mess. And as some would lead you to believe, no publicity is bad publicity.

Subhankar Mondal 

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