Kiren Rijiju appeals to pay importance to Olympics and indigenous sports

Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Youth Affairs & Sports, has taken to the micro-blogging platform Twitter to urge the nation to give more importance to the Olympics and also promoted the indigenous sports such as Kabaddi, Kho-Kho, Kalaripayattu etc.

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Earlier this month, speaking about the international sporting event Olympics, Rijiju asserted confidence in India's ability to beat its 2012 medal tally in the coming Tokyo Olympics. India gave its best-ever performance in the Olympics in the 2012 edition, taking home six medals including two silver and four bronze. However, the athletes put up a disappointing show in the 2016 Rio Games, where they won just two medals.

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Assessing athletes' performance

"We are assessing our athletes' performance under the TOPS scheme. Right now we are at the halfway stage, 61 athletes have qualified for Tokyo. The qualification process will go on till May," Rijiju said during a session of a media event.

"Saying how many medals we will win 8-9 months beforehand is not correct. I am just making an assessment now that we have the capability of breaking the London record," he added. 

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"There are a lot of issues. Governance is the biggest issue. Sometimes if the athlete is doing well the federation is not able to tell the ministry, doesn't promote the athlete," Rijiju said.

"Players, federation and government all have to come together. Earlier the federation and government fought with each other all the time. But when I was made minister, I called the federations and said I'm not here to govern over you, I am here to help you and the athletes," he added.

(With PTI inputs)

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