IPL OR ELECTION

In the coming months of April-May,two major events are coming up in India.One event is the General Elections where around 70 crore people would be excersing their right to vote.The other event is where even more than 90 crore people would be glued to their TV sets as the Indian Premier League(IPL) season 2 is set to kick off on April 9.Well,now the issue between these two events is security.Some state governments have opposed over taking place of IPL matches during election as they would not be able to provide security to both elections and IPL matches simultaneously.

The Home Minister Mr.Chidambaram had requested the IPL boss Lalit Modi to postpone the IPL after the elections citing security reasons.But Lalit Modi turned down the request saying that IPL matches would not take on election days and the final counting day.Lalit Modi is yet to announce the revised IPL schedule but he has added 3 new venues where the matches would be played.Lalit Modi also assured that the security this time around would be handled centrally unlike the last time where respective franchise were responsible for security of players and also claimed that the security budget is 10 times bigger than what it was last year.Lalit Modi refused to budge on the postponement of IPL considering the crores of money riding on IPL.BCCI could have lost upto 500 crores had the IPL been postponed.

Considering what happened in Pakistan last week,the Home Minister was correct in asking the postponement of IPL.And adding further hurdles to the security of players was the General elections which is clashing with the IPL.But if IPL doesn't take place this time round,there is no slot available till next year and i am sure India will also lose the rights of hosting 2011 World Cup on grounds of security.After so much hoopla,the Home minister now has also assured security from their side for the IPL but has asked for a revised IPL schedule.

So then is IPL more important than elections? Well,IPL is not more important than elections but we have got to prove to the world that India is not like Pakistan and India is safe.Just consider,would China have not accepted the chance of hosting the Olympics if the elections would have taken place.No,because it is pride in hosting the Olympics and China would have never let that chance go.Similarly IPL is also an issue of pride for India.But GOD forbidden,if anything goes haywire in the IPL then India is all set to become like Pakistan atleast in the cricketing arena.So it is a dicey situation,let's hope IPL and Elections both go through smoothly.