On Tuesday, after almost a month of taking charge as sports minister, Kiren Rijiju spoke at length and clarified a few pertinent issues that had been dominating the news in recent days.
He was lucid in his answers and wherever he thought he needed more clarity (in case of gymnastics federation) he excused from making any comment. Early days, but it seems he is getting pro-active.
Rijiju’s reaction on Indian Olympic Association’s comment that it was mulling boycotting the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, as expected, made the headlines. He said, and rightly so, that the IOA or shooting federation cannot unilaterally take decisions of boycotting such mega-events because shooting was left out by the organisers.
The IOA can’t be castigated either. Shooting has fetched the maximum number of medals at the CWG and without the sport, India’s chances of finishing in the top five will be bleak. The minister also stressed on another point: “It is a matter of future of our athletes and national prestige, everything is involved.” National prestige it is. But when we don’t finish on top in CWG, people won’t ask comfortable questions.
On the flipside, this should give us an opportunity to introspect too. That’s the reason why we should excel in sports like athletics, swimming, cycling and gymnastics where maximum number of medals are on offer. Since athletics and swimming are the toughest sports in CWG, doing well here will boost our chances even at the Olympics.
With the CWG three years away, the ministry, along with the federations, can start focussing on these disciplines to cover the medal deficit. For this to happen, the federations and the ministry need to identify a proper pathway to develop and train athletes. Athletics was one of the top performers last year but needs to go to the next level.
Another point that I found interesting was that the minister was abreast of the latest happenings in the archery federation but when asked about the gymnastics federation he knew little. This is simply because the minister, as the president of Arunachal Pradesh archery association, is part of the Archery Association of India. Understandably so, he would not know about other federations.
His decision to resign from the post of president of his state association is prudent but if his association has attended one of the two meetings, then there is a conflict here. Though he has offered to resign, questions will still be asked.
The Supreme Court will finally decide the outcome, but one faction has already been crying foul. They believe the faction led by union minister Arjun Munda will always have an upper hand over the rival led by former bureaucrat BVP Rao, because the former is from the ruling dispensation.
Such a scenario could have been avoided if we had followed the Lodha recommendations that say ministers and serving bureaucrats should not be part of sports administration because it is not a part-time job. There is too much ambiguity in our national sports code when it comes to elections.
Perhaps, it’s time the minister takes a look-in into our National Sports Development Code that follows the 2011 draft in some while in a few others follow the 1975 (when it comes to tenure issue) one.