World Cup fever has in its grip thousands of inmates in Tihar Jail, India's largest prison, and most are rooting for Brazil.
NEW DELHI: World Cup fever has in its grip thousands of inmates in Tihar Jail, India's largest prison, and most are rooting for Brazil.
According to prison authorities here, 350 television sets have been provided to the inmates, and match time has most of them glued to the television.
Football is the subject of intense discussion among inmates, including Pappu Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament, in jail in connection with the 1998 murder of Communist Party of India-Marxist legislator Ajit Sarkar.
The prisoners cheer during matches and many send out silent prayers for their favourite players, an official said.
"They play kho-kho, volleyball, kabaddi and chess, but when it comes to discussion, football is the favourite sports subject in Tihar. Keeping this in mind, we have installed 350 television sets with cable connections for them," said Sunil K Gupta, a senior law officer of Tihar.
"We allow prisoners to watch the live telecast of the matches till 11 pm. We hope the initiative will help the prisoners get out of their depression and loneliness and help us get a better response to our reform programmes," Gupta said.
Gupta said most inmates are for Brazil and watch any match involving that country.
"The clear favourite is Brazil, but Asian countries like Japan, South Korea and Iran too have their supporters here," he said, adding that Sunday's win of Brazil over Australia was enjoyed very much by them.
The authorities at Tihar have deployed security units to keep tabs on infighting among inmates while watching matches. The jail is home to more than 13,000 prisoners, including over 300 foreign inmates.
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