Sports under Ministers The national convener of Clean Sports India, BVP Rao, did in Guwahati recently what citizens of the State have not had the courage to do in years. Having arrived in the city to participate in the Abhiruchi Sports Day regularly held on September 3, Rao issued a press release that was a critique of the sports scenario in the State. He said that Assam’s case was one of the worst in the country where most of the State sports associations were headed by ministers. “It is ridiculous that two ministers of Assam — Himanta Biswa Sarma and Rockybul Hussain — occupy about 25 per cent of positions in sports associations of Assam,” he said in the press release. He recalled the corruption and scandals in which politicians were involved (like Suresh Kalmadi in the Commonwealth Games scandal) which had shamed the nation recently. He thought that ministers of Assam were emulating the role of Kalmadi in taking control of sports. Rao said he had the feeling that sports persons of Assam were afraid to raise their voices against politicians. He said that sports persons of Assam had no reasons for such fears since the Clean Sports India Movement was taking roots all over the country. He said the days of politicians like Kalmadi were numbered in the sports world. It was, therefore, the opportune time for sports persons of Assam to clean up the mess in the State sports by joining the Clean Sports India Movement. It will be recalled that Clean Sports was founded in June this year with just ten members headed by former India hockey captain as president and athletic Olympian Ashwini Nachappa as vice-president. The well-known sportsman of Assam, Bhogeswar Baruah, joined the movement as a founding member along with footballer Tosen Borah. Rao’s claim that two ministers of Assam control 25 per cent of the State’s sport could send the wrong signals about the extent of politicians’ control of sports in Assam. If anything, politicians have a stranglehold on Assam’s sport. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi himself is president of the Assam Olympic Association (AOA) while Rockybul Hussain is the secretary. Rockybul Hussain is also the president of the Assam Athletic Association (AAA) and the Assam Table Tennis Association (ATTA). Himanta Biswa Sarma is the president of the Assam Badminton Association (ABA) and the Assam Hockey Association AHA). Minister Gautam Roy is president of the Assam Cricket Association (ACA). AGP leader Durga Das Boro is president of the Assam Lawn Bowls and the Fencing Association. Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president and MP is the president of the Assam Kabaddi Association (AKA) and the Assam Canoeing and Kayaking Association (ACKA), Congress MLA Bhupen Bora is the president of the Assam Volleyball Association (AVA). There is hardly any sports association that is not headed by a politician. Anyone not familiar with our culture of having politicians at the head of sports bodies would think that these politicians must have distinguished themselves in the sport that they are in charge of at some time or the other. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most of the politicians heading the sports and games bodies know nothing of that game or sport.
Throughout India, the performance of sportsmen or athletes in any game or sport supervised by any politician and with government-appointed officials and coaches looking after them has been dismal, to say the least. It is only in the games and sports not supervised by state-appointed coaches that India has done well. In that list we have games and sports like chess, golf, shooting and badminton. Let a politician give up the stewardship of any game and pass it on to a distinguished sportsman and we shall a marked improvement of standards in that game. The Clean Sports India follows the hallowed tradition of sportsmen like Prakash Padukone and Pullela Gopichand and what they have been able to do to badminton with their kind of leadership. In contrast we have games like football (in which India is nowhere) and hockey (in which India was at the top for years and then nose-dived to the depths) when the game was taken out of the stewardship of professionals. We want more and more sportsmen and sportswomen doing what is good for their careers and for their sport or game — getting out of the stranglehold of politicians and demanding that sports and games be looked after by professionals. http://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/story.php?sec=3&subsec=0&id=46559&dtP=2010-09-05&ppr=1#46559 _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
