?We hope for the best ever Olympic medal tally?: Kiren Rijiju

With 126 athletes, Bharat heads to Tokyo with its largest ever contingent of athletes across 18 disciplines, from archery and fencing to swimming and equestrian. On the preparations and expectations from the Indian athletes, Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju exclusively spoke to Organiser Editor Prafulla Ketkar and Correspondent Nishant Kr Azad where he said India as a country cannot afford to settle for one or two medals; it doesn’t go well with the stature of our country

We are coming out of a challenging situation due to COVID-19. The Indian team is going for the Olympics. It will be a different Olympics as the games are not to be played with much spectators due to different circumstances. So the size delegation is also restricted. That is why I have decided that there will be no officials from the Ministry of Sports and Sports Authority of India to be a part of the contingent. That means all the members will be sportspersons and technical staff. The delegation will be there from the Indian side, they are part of the official management, but no one will go from the Ministry. If the Sports Minister goes, it will be only for the opening ceremony on the invitation of the Japanese Government, as the USA will be represented by the First Lady. So for the game, we are not going, even I am not going. But if there is a necessity then someone from the Government must be there for the opening ceremony, I will go and then come back after the ceremony. This is because we wanted to give the maximum place to the players and the technical team. That is why this decision was taken for the first time.

The problem in our country is that a large part of our country does not have sports facilities. Some of the indigenous games, which are very popular and very attractive, never got the attention of the Government. So what I thought that Yogasana must be declared as a sporting event, then Malkham and Kalaripayattu. These are some of the very ancient and traditional sports in our country. We have to revive the Indian culture. We have to convert sporting tradition into sports culture. That’s why I have included them in Khelo India, and now they are a part of the next Khelo Youth games. Some people will play football while some will play cricket, but many people will play Malkham or Yoga or Kho-Kho or Kabaddi. We have to compete with the international teams in international sports, where we have to promote Indian sports also. We cannot allow our indigenous games to die. Thus, I have been given recognition as the Sports Minister of India. I am grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing us to bring about changes within the ministry.

As a large country, we should push for that. Because of the pandemic, many of our efforts were met with obstacles. We would push for the inclusion of Kabaddi in the Olympics by 2028. If we can’t, then we must try to push by 2032. For that, we will require a lot of mobilisation and influence. We have to convince all the IOC member countries. The majority of IOC members agree and we will push for that. Kabaddi is one of my priorities and we can push for other indigenous games too.

The Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) is aimed at Olympics.So all young players who are probable for Olympics qualification are brought under the scheme. Once a player gets selected, she/he is entitled for all facilities: foreign trips, free coach, physiotherapist, pocket expenses and all other required facilities. That means a player has to do nothing; the Government will take care of everything. So, they have to be identified first. So we identify those talents through various scientific process. Right now, we have various players who are in top form and we got the benefits. Almost 90 per cent of the players who were in the top scheme are a part of the Olympics team, which shows the result.

We are hoping for the best ever Olympics result. India as a country cannot afford one or two medals; it doesn’t go well with the stature of our country. I have set a target that by 2028, India must be among the top 10. India has to become one of the most powerful nations in the world of sports. Beginning with the Tokyo Olympics, I expect good results, not up to the target that I had set as we got very little time to prepare. But definitely, we must be able to achieve the best ever Olympic result. There is a caveat to that, Olympic is not just the biggest sports event; it is the world’s biggest event. In Olympics, the level of competition is the highest, as every country sends their best team. Now on a particular day, the best of our players can also fail, or they also can alter. So once they fail, it can be very costly, because it’s the question of medals. So nobody can say who will win the medal or who will not at that level. But there is a difference; earlier, we used to go to Olympics with the expectation of winning only two-three medals. Today India is contagious for multiple medals. That is the success. Now how many medals, I can’t say, but we are expecting the best performance.

Yes, Milkha Singh is a legend. At one point of time, he was the star of Asia. He came at fourth position in the 1960 Rome Olympic. He missed his dream as he lost by a fraction of a second. He continued to make this issue a point that he missed by a fraction of a second and in his lifetime, an Indian must win medal in athletics. He could not fulfil his wish in his lifetime, but I had promised him that we would definitely win a medal in Olympics in athletics. So let us hope that this time if we can make it. Otherwise, next time indeed we will prepare in such a way that we will definitely win medals in athletics. I will fulfil the dream of Milkha Singh by giving all the possible support to the athletes.

There are many technical issues. I would not discuss on the technicalities. I want to say that

there is a lack of sports culture in the country, which must be changed. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought Khelo India, which is transforming Indian sports culture. To bring sporting culture into the society, your outlook must be changed. The Government will do everything, but at the same time, people also need to support. Without people’s support, the Government policies and programmes alone cannot be successful.

We are galvanising the people of the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji himself has started the Cheer4India campaign. Although we are not going to Tokyo, we will cheer from here. We are not cheering in the stadium, but we are cheering from India. Everyone can cheer from their respective locations. Now, for the common person, if you want to make Indian sports rich, Indian athletes must shine. Also people need to watch games. Except for cricket and to some extent, Kabaddi league, all the other leagues are failing as there are no viewers. People don’t watch games in India, people should watch. It can generate revenue that can benefit the players, the management, and the clubs to become rich. If the UK, American, Japanese clubs can be rich, why cannot Indian clubs be rich? Indian sports clubs can be rich if people watch the games. Who will buy television rights if people don’t watch it? So it is the citizens who count. The population of the UK is just 16 million, which can survive all football clubs, rugby clubs. India’s five per cent population is the total the UK population. That means that even if one per cent of Indian population watches football, its 1.3 crores will make the club rich. Unfortunately, our viewership is in thousands. So I appeal to everybody to watch games, to get involved. Go to stadiums to watch games or watch it on television, on OTT, watch live on any social media platform. We should watch, we should encourage; that is the best way to make our players perform better.