By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Jan 4: Union Minister of State Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju on Monday expressed dismay over the country’s inability to feature in the medal list of the Olympics and asserted that for the country to turn into a sporting nation the mindset of the society and the attitude of the Government towards sports have to change.
He said this while addressing the gathering during the inauguration of the Assam Rifles Public School (ARPS) Sports School at Laitkor, Shillong, which is the first ever sports school in the North East. The school will nurture and train selected students in three disciplines — Archery, Athletics and Fencing.
The Union Minister pointed out that sports or playing has always been treated as a secondary thing in the country and this has to change.
He even recited a popular phrase that explains his point, “Padhoge likhoge to banoge nawab, kheloge kudoge to banoge kharab”, meaning you will be a king if you read and write, but spoilt if you play.
Unhappy with the poor medal tally of the country in the Olympics, the Minister said that the agenda of the sports ministry is to see India in the top ten Olympic medal winners by 2028 Olympics.
“We do not produce medal winners in a systematic way. There are isolated cases when one or two talents are found who receives good coaching and they succeed. We need to produce talents and medal winners in a systematic way,” he said.
He added that just celebrating the victory of one or two individuals will not be enough in a country with world’s second largest population.
“Smaller countries with very less population win ten to twelve medals in the Olympics. Why can’t we?” he questioned.
Talking about the ARPS (Sports) to reporters after the programme, the Union Minister said, “This is a new experiment in our effort to create more sports facility of world class at the grass roots level”.
Stating that there are many sports facilities and academies in the country but the Ministry wants to go deeper and extend its reach, the Union Minister said, “Assam Rifles came out with this beautiful proposal which we have agreed and now we have inaugurated and things have been formally declared”.
He said that Assam Rifles have their own resource and have also created lots of infrastructure but it needs to upgraded and enhanced.
“I will ensure that we provide top class coaches from Sports Authority of India (SAI) and we will also provide funds for enhancing some of the facilities to the international standard,” he said.
He hopes that ARPS (Sports) will be a centre that will produce many international champions.
“The school will nurture young talent and this is not only going to be for Meghalaya but a pride for the North East,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Union Minister earlier during the day also inaugurated the synthetic athletic track and field and the synthetic football ground at SAI Training Centre, NEHU Campus, Shillong.
Talking about it, the Union Minister said, “Shillong is located at a good height and I want to develop Shillong as a high altitude training centre”.
“I inaugurated two SAI football pitch and athletic tracks. There are some other facilities as well. So it is a professional SAI centre where mostly seniors and some juniors will be trained,” he added.
He further said that the development of sports has recently been added as a subject of priority under the North Eastern Council and the sports ministry is trying to make all ends meet and turn the country to a sporting nation.
Meanwhile, Director General, Assam Rifles, Lt Gen Sukhdeep Sangwan said that it is important to have a institution in the NE as the region is fertile with talents and the centrality of NE to Assam Rifles is intense.
“Let’s embrace this sporting culture, the North East has the passion to excel,” he said.
Stressing that everyone should collectively have this passion and mission for winning the Olympic gold, he said that it is challenging but one has to dream to reach there.