Mumbai: India’s legendary athlete Milkha Singh has suggested that Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to be made India’s sports minister. Rathore is a Member of Parliament from Rajasthan. He is currently a Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting in the BJP led National Democratic Alliance government.
Rathore’s experience and expertise of the game will come to great help in nurturing upcoming athletes. India needs someone like Rathore at the helm of affairs.
“I have a suggestion, make Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore the Sports Minister and put him in charge with appropriate funding and resource support. Put different individuals as heads for different sports and give them all support to get medals for India. We have the talent in India and with the right effort, I am confident that we can do it,” Milkha said.
Singh, who is famously known as “Flying Sikh” has congratulated PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar for their exploits at the Rio games. Sindhu became the first woman athlete to win silver medal. Sakshi won bronze in the women’s wrestling and Dipa finished fourth in gymnastics and missed the medal by a whisker.
“I had tears in my eyes when I saw PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik drape the national flag around their shoulders after receiving their medals. My wife Nirmal, who was an Inter Varsity badminton player herself, joins me in congratulating PV Sindhu, her parents and her coach Gopichand for the wonderful achievement.
“I would also like to congratulate Sakshi Malik and Dipa Karmakar, their parents and coaches for their sacrifices and for proving that with hard work and determination, Indians can excel and this should be an inspiration to our boys as well. You ladies have made India proud and we are grateful to you,” said the ‘Flying Sikh’.
India’s performance has been disappointing to say the least. India sent its largest ever contingent with 119 athletes. Abhinav Bindra came very close but missed out on a medal by tiniest of margins. India is a country with 1.3 billion people and we should win more medals at the highest level and make India proud.
Milkha further added that, “As soon as the Rio Olympics are over, work should begin on the next two games with a clear objective of winning medals there, keeping in mind the improving world standards. Today we have the infrastructure and resources. Nothing is lacking. We should get top class coaches on a contract basis and empower them and our sports people to go for gold.”
India’s sports minister Vijay Goel and his entourage became the talking point during the Olympics. They were in the news for violating rules and for their rude behaviour.The minister’s love for selfies and want to stay in limelight took the attention away from the athletes. Government should appoint someone like Rathore, who won silver in double trap shooting at Athens games in 2004. MC Mary Kom, who made India proud in 2012 London games by winning bronze in boxing should also be utilised as mentor to the budding athlets by sharing her experience and imparting knowledge. Mary Kom is currently serving as a Rajya Sabha member.
India has lots of potential and can produce many more Sindhus if we cleanse the system and put proper infrastructure in place. India should prepare for Tokyo games from now and for that we need a sports minister who could be more hands on and should provide inspiration to the athletes.