Haryana's 'Little Cuba' looks for knockout punch

BHIWANI: This election season, politicians are the favourite punching bag for Haryana's 'Little Cuba' Bhiwani.
Neglected for years by the governments, the boxing capital of India is boiling with anger as young pugilists rue the plight of boxers in the region.
Flexing their sculpted arms and beads of sweat dropping on their red and blue gloves, three pairs of teenagers - Nisha, Sonia, Bharti, Shruti, Sonia and Dimpy - are squaring off for a Friday sparring session - but their future in boxing ring is uncertain.
"Little Mary Koms. Shadow," coach Sanjay Singh Sheoran screams as he animatedly moves at his makeshift boxing club, set up on the banks of an irrigation canal in the town. Sheoran, son of boxing legend Dronacharya and Arjuna awardee Captain Hawa Singh, is carrying on his father's boxing legacy for free.
In the midst of poll fever, deteriorating state of boxing in Bhiwani has got him worried. The two administration-run centres, one belonging to the state government and the other to Sports Authority of India (SAI), are in a shambles, forcing Bhiwani's young kids to take lessons at mushrooming private clubs - 11 at last count.
Such is the state of neglect and callousness that SAI's own coach Jagdish concurrently and defiantly runs his own private academy - Bhiwani Boxing Club that has produced star pugilists like Olympian Vijender Singh, Dilbagh, Manbir Sheoran, Vikas Yadav and Dinesh.
"The dirty politics is such that the government-run boxing club at Bhiwani's Bhim stadium, named after my father, doesn't even permit me to go there. The diet allowance is hardly beyond Rs 200 per day for young boxers at these academies. The politicians only make attempts to woo voters before elections," Sheoran said.
His grouse is not misplaced. While Congress chief minister Bhupinder Hooda quickly made Olymian Vijender Singh a DSP in Haryana police before the 2009 Lok Sabha and state polls, Indian National Lok Dal's Abhay Chautala has been backing his faction to take control of Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF).
Only Tuesday this week, IABF got its second setback after the Union sports ministry derecognised it over allegations of rigged elections and corruption. Last year, International Boxing Association had terminated it over the same charges.
This even as the sitting Congress MP Shruti Choudhary is now going door-to-door announcing a sports university for boxing and other sports in Bhiwani.
"Our first achievement was when we managed to get NCR status for Bhiwani. Now we are setting up hospital and a sports university in Bhiwani," Choudhry is heard speaking at her rallies from Dadri to Taushan in her constituency Bhiwani-Mahendergarh.
But many young and retired pugilists in the district dub these offers ridiculous. For some, it's a never-ending wait to get a job while for others it's lack of timely cash rewards to pursue their careers.
"I was lucky that I landed a job as income tax officer in Delhi. But not many women can dare to enter into boxing as there are hardly any incentives," admits Pooja Rani, who is currently ranked number one in India and world number eleven in the 75kg category.