Tags:
Journalism of Courage
There were representatives from over 40 national federations at the Indian Olympic Association IOA-convened meeting to discuss threadbare the Sports Ministry8217;s new draft policy today. But the voice was one, unanimous, loud and clear. Not a single representative spoke in favour of the sports policy.
The verdict: an outright rejection of the policy.
In fact, speaker after speaker suggested there was no need for a new policy at all and the Sports Ministry should instead try and strengthen the old one formulated in 2001 because it had yielded results.
Coming down heavily on Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, SM Bali of the Handball Federation said: 8220;The minister is talking about taking sport to the grassroots level. The SGFI, which is directly controlled by the ministry, has two factions. So much so, sport at school level is suffering.8221;
IOA president Suresh Kalmadi then said: 8220;It is really unfortunate that various federations have been running from pillar to post to get sanction on team clearance and money. Most of federations8217; energy is spent on these things. Where is the time for team8217;s preparation to think about medals?8221;
Kalmadi also said it was never the idea of the IOA or its affiliated units federations to boycott the Sports Ministry8217;s meeting. Lalit Kumar Bhanot, secretary of the Athletics Federation of India, said: 8220;It has become fashionable for every new sports minister to come up with something new. Unfortunately, it talks about everything except how to win medals. My job is to see how our athletes can win medals. I am not concerned about healthcare or any other thing.8221;
Indian Amateur Boxing Federation secretary PK Muralidharan Raja said: 8220;The new policy talks about accountability without responsibility. But authority should flow from responsibility.8221; KP Singh Deo, chairman of the Sports Commission said: 8220;I want the minister to go and have a look at the appalling conditions prevailing in Patiala and Bangalore where our athletes train.8221;
