This piece is not about how to revive football (...) nor is it about whether the new league should be communal-based or not to be successful. It is rather the oft-repeated notion that communal football is such a demon that its head should be chopped off, as if only football is communally driven in this country. Is this convenient naiveté or ostrich politics of denial? There are two points I want to raise in this article. First, people are quick to point the communal finger at others, while ignoring their own behaviour. (...) There is an old Indian adage that goes like this: ?a lamp provides light all around, except right underneath it.? A criticism of any type first requires self-analysis and self-evaluation, for it may end up being self-inflicted. But, to do that, the need to be objective is primordial. Two, and most importantly, the people we hear the most from ? aka politicians ? are themselves most prone to use the benefits of sectarianism. During the live call-in, the Sports minister gave an emphatic ?no? to communal football. But his emphasis was in expression only. In action, it is a different story. He still needs to run in constituency n° 2 for a reasonable chance to be elected. (...) Is this not communalism at its best? The process of de-communalising Mauritius has got to be by design. None other than the government can reverse the throttle although I fail to see how elected officials can stop sectarianism when they themselves have to thank it for their bread and butter. Just about everything in this country is sectarian-oriented and, if logic prevails, rallying against communal football should also be followed by similar calls against communalism in other areas. That would be the honest thing to do. Instead, what do we see? Outright condemnation of sectarianism to make an argument, while totally ignoring other forms of communalism, often self-practised. And now, to complicate matters even more, we have socio-cultural groups ? with hiring data-by-religion spreadsheets ? acting as communal police making sure that their respective membership is not cast aside. Blaming football for the evil of communalism is tantamount to saying that no football will make communalism a thing of the past. On a wing and a prayer, maybe.

<B> Saoud BACCUS