New Delhi,
\nThe Indian sports fraternity is delighted with the appointment of Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore as the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s understandable for the sportsman-turned-politician knows firsthand what a sportsperson goes through while chasing his dreams, and what needs to be done to lift Indian sport from the depths of mediocrity. The Minister understands there are overwhelming expectations from him to change the current system, marred by red-tapism and bureaucratic hurdles, into the one that has sportspersons at its centre, and helps them achieve excellence on the global stage.<\/p>\n
On Monday, his first day in office, the 47-year-old sent out a strong message to the Ministry officials, saying \u201cfrom now onwards, there would be only one VIP, and that\u2019s a sportsperson\u201d. \u201cThe philosophy of this Ministry would be ‘samman\u2019 (respect) and \u2018suvidha\u2019 (facilities). Respect for every athlete and facilities for every player representing the country,\u201d Rathore said.<\/p>\n
Attitude needs to change
\n\u201cThe environment and attitude of this Ministry needs to be changed. There is only one VIP from now on, and that\u2019s a sportsperson, nobody else. This attitudinal shift is required and we\u2019ll achieve that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aim of this Ministry would be to create an environment in which sportspersons are treated as the first citizens of this country. This Ministry has to work 24×7 because when an athlete is preparing, every single day of the week, month and year counts. This is a service ministry and we provide service to sportspersons,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Rathore, the first Indian shooter to win a medal (in double trap) at the Athens Olympics in 2004, indicated that the long-awaited revised draft of the National Sports Development Bill (known as Sports Code) and Sports Fraud Bill could see the light of the day during his tenure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn sport, there\u2019s an important connect known as fans. For these fans, the sporting icons shouldn\u2019t resort to cheating or unfair practices to win. Anything that gives primacy to fans and players will be taken care of,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll implement everything that improves Indian sports. I am taking note of which schemes are being run and how we can improve them. I\u2019ll also see how we can improve the delivery system and management of various institutions (read sports federations). The effort would be to ensure that whenever sportspersons visit the Ministry, their problems are resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n
First day in office
\nRathore, who\u2019s become the first sportsperson to head the Ministry, hit the ground running on his first day in office. He held a high-level meeting with the secretaries and senior Ministry officials for close to an hour. According to a Ministry official, Rathore enquired about the Sports Bill, Olympics Task Force and the Empowered Steering Committee. \u201cThe Minister held a special briefing on the Sports Bill and Task Force. He wanted to understand the progress made as far as the implementation of the Bill is concerned. He also asked about the status of the recommendations made by the Task Force,\u201d the official added.<\/p>\n
While spelling out his philosophy and priorities as the Sports Minister, Rathore turned nostalgic and recalled his own visits to the Ministry as a sportsperson. \u201cI still remember how I had to take permission on paper at the reception to enter the premises and meet the officials. It all started for me then. So I know what hardships players have to face.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, The Indian sports fraternity is delighted with the appointment of Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore as the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports. That\u2019s understandable for the sportsman-turned-politician knows firsthand what a sportsperson goes through while chasing his dreams, and what needs to be done to lift Indian sport from the depths of mediocrity. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3896,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3894\/revisions\/3896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}