BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had clarified that India has not notified any national game while replying to an RTI query in 2012, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s demand for notification of hockey as national game was trending on social media on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to notify hockey as national game and took to the micro-blogging site - Twitter to make it a movement on social media.
The hash tag #HockeyForNationalGame continued to trend at No.1 on twitter for over three hours. It remained in the Top-10 trends till late in the evening garnering much support for the cause.
In fact, thousands of hockey fans supported the CM’s demand and the letter went viral in minutes after he tweeted it at about 2.27 pm tagging the PM, Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, AR Rehman, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Sunil Chhetri and many other personalities.
Twitterati from across the country also created memes and posters on social media to extend their support and demanded that the Centre should come out with an official notification about the national game.
Odisha Sports Minister Chandra Sarathi Behera in his tweet stated that the notification will mark the beginning of a golden era for the game.
Eminent sports journalist Ayaz Memon (@cricketwallah) tweeted: “Strong, interesting pitch by CM Naveen Patnaik to make hockey the national game. Odisha will be hosting World Cup.”
Another twitterati Deepak (@DBaradiya) said Odisha for an benchmark in sports every year. “It’s great to see Government of Odisha doing for smartly.”
“Everyone wants #HockeyForNationalGame and that’s time to make this true. Lets give hockey the respect it deserves,” tweeted @vandanathegreat.Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik too showed solidarity through his art on the Puri beach. He designed a hockey stick and a ball with the #HockeyForNationalGame on it.
Some tweets too created humour. “Realised today that all of us have been getting full marks for a wrong answer to that GK question on India’s national game,” tweeted senior scribe Ashok Mohapatra.
While many hockey fans mentioned that Naveen’s decision to pitch for the notification could be the game changer for the national game, several others stated it is the responsibility of the Centre to make hockey an officially declared national game by bringing its golden period again.