Western mediamen are at it again. They’re trying hard to turn the forthcoming Beijing Olympics into a damp squib by vehemently criticising China for political reasons.

They have brought up issues related to environmental hazards and human rights violations, which are quite irrelevant to the nature and cause of the Games. As the inaugral ceremony of the mega event draws closer, the intensity of the criticism is increasing, and serious campaigns are being launched to denounce China as the host of the big event.

In an official statement, the European Union has threatened that it may consider to boycott the Beijing Olympics over “cultural genocide” in Tibet by China. While in the United States conservatives and liberal members of Congress have joined forces to urge the US government to boycott the opening ceremony of the Games, accusing China of “gross human violation”. Even the President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge has said in an interview that “the atmosphere” in which the Games will take place “will be largely determined by the situation in Tibet.”

It is a load of rubbish that the West is mixing the grand sporting gala with international politics. The Olympic Games call for solidarity and unity among nations and provide a platform to different people across the world to sit together despite their geo-cultural differences. Sports have always been helpful in lessening hostility among nations at loggerheads, and an Olympic event is the only occasion where every single nation of the world comes to compete, giving out the message of peace and harmony.

More importantly, the Olympic Games do not belong to China alone but to the entire human race. It has a universal message. It is an event that provides equal opportunity to people irrespective of their caste and creed. It is often said, “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

However, this isn’t the first time when the Games have faced political pressures and threats of boycott. In fact, politics has more often than not meddled with the Olympics in the history of the Games. The 1956 Melbourne Olympics were the first that were boycotted by the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland because of the repression of the Hungarian Uprising by the Soviet Union. On the other hand, Cambodia, Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon boycotted the same event due to the Suez Crisis. In 1972 and 1976, a majority of African countries threatened the IOC with a boycott to force it to impose a ban on South Africa, Rhodesia and New Zealand.

The Cold War between the USA and the USSR led them and their allies to boycott each other’s Games in 1980 and 1984, respectively. At first, 65 nations refused to compete in the Moscow Olympics in 1980 because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and in response the Soviet Union and 14 of its Eastern Bloc partners countered the move by skipping the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, citing safety concerns. Despite all of that, the Olympic Games are regularly held after every four years and the Beijing Games are no exception.

Now we come to the positive side of the 2008 event. The slogan for the 2008 Olympics “One World, One Dream” calls upon the world to get united in the Olympic spirit. And it has worked well, as this year North Korea and South Korea, who have been at daggers drawn since 1953, have teamed up, contesting as one nation. The western media must value the sanctity of the human spirit and should not confuse it with its petty political aspirations. The world is facing problems like poverty, environmental pollution, and population explosion on the one hand and terrorism, militancy, and nuclear proliferation on the other. There’s unrest in every region. Therefore it is not right to sabotage the Games.

In this regard, it has to be mentioned that Bollywood’s renowned actor Amir Khan recently ran with the Olympic torch in Delhi despite criticism from various quarters. He aptly pointed out, “If we were to try and find on this planet a place to hold the Olympic Games where the government of that place has not been responsible for human rights violations (in one way or the other), then I suspect that we would be left with very few options.”