“In the previous 9 years, a brand new sporting period has dawned that’s empowering the society by the medium of sport.”

This quote from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while virtually inaugurating the ‘Khelo India University Games’ through, wasn’t wrong. It’s a fact!

Indian sports have taken a giant leap in the past few years at the international arena and credit must be given to the ruling BJP government at the Centre.

In the last nine years of the BJP-led government, we have had six different sports ministers (Sarbananda Sonowal, Jitendra Singh, Vijay Goel, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Kiren Rijiju and now Anurag Thakur), but the success graph of Indian sports has only been rising.

Each minister was clearly instructed by the Prime Minister that India must become a sports powerhouse in the world. They were asked by the PM to take care of athletes’ need for finances, resources, infrastructure, foreign exposure and others and to make sure that “not to pressurise any sportsperson for a medal”.

PM Modi’s interplay with the athletes earlier than and after occasions grew to become frequent, and it was welcomed by all, together with the opposition events.

Through the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), various medal contenders have been recognized and nurtured for main occasions. The outcomes have been additionally beneficial.

The 2016 and 2021 Olympics, although, have been a little bit disappointing, in response to coaches and specialists, contemplating the large sum spent on the gamers. But nobody can problem the heart-warming progress, from two medals in Rio to seven in Tokyo, together with one Gold. Numbers, on this case, don’t lie!

This motivation pushed the BJP-led authorities to focus extra on sports activities maintaining the 2024 Olympic Games in thoughts. on the grass-roots degree too, Khelo India/Khelo India Youth Games acquired good response and various proficient athletes have been picked for future excursions.

Neeraj Chopra (javelin), PV Sindhu (badminton), Mirabai Chanu (weightlifting), Sakshi Malik (wrestling), Bajrang Punia (wrestling), Ravi Dahiya (wrestling), the lads’s and ladies’s hockey groups, each women and men, have made India proud lately.

They grew to become the speak of the city with their beautiful performances. They introduced laurels to the nation when different disciplines struggled within the Olympics.

Well, why simply the Olympics and never different Games, such because the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. Again, the credit score goes to athletes and the federal government who raised the bar, and now medals in Asian and Commonwealth Games look “simply” achievable, albeit less competitive.

And it will be wrong to not mention the kind of progress Paralympians too got under the BJP-led government.

Even the national sports federations made much-needed change within the board as well as in the working style after strict instructions from the Central government.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) got new office-bearers, led by the legendary P.T. Usha.

But… nothing is easy in a country of billions!

With power comes responsibility. The BJP-led government may have provided everything to the athletes, but satisfying everyone is a tough task. It faced many challenging times, which sometimes shamed Indian sports at an international level.

To start with, the ongoing wrestlers’ protest against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has put the government in the dock.

Barjang, Sakshi and Vinesh Phogat, while levelling serious sexual harassment allegations against Brij Bhushan, have also slammed the government for ignoring the wrestlers’ plea and supporting the WFI chief, who happens to be a BJP MP.

The month-old protest has made international news with several Olympic champions coming out in support of the grapplers and questioning the WFI chief and the government. Whether the allegations are true or false, an investigation is on, but whatever is happening is not good for Indian wrestling.

Prior to the much-publicised protest by the wrestlers, the BJP and the Sports Ministry also had other controversies to grapple with.

Following an FIR over a sexual harassment complaint by a junior athletics coach, Haryana Sports Minister and BJP leader Sandeep Singh earlier this year handed over his sports portfolio to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on “moral grounds”.

Singh — the previous captain of the Indian males’s hockey workforce — was accused of contacting her on Instagram, inviting her dwelling, and sexually harassing her at his camp workplace later. A case was registered in opposition to Singh below totally different sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Singh, nevertheless, has dismissed the allegations as an effort to tarnish his picture. He had made a profitable begin to his political profession in 2019, when he gained the Assembly elections from Pehowa and have become the Sports Minister of Haryana.

Earlier in 2016, throughout the raging controversy over the participation of wrestlers Sushil Kumar and Narsingh Yadav within the Olympics, then Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had stated he gained’t “intrude” in the matter and it has to be resolved by the WFI.

Narsingh won the Olympic quota place in the 74kg category at the World Championships. But double-Olympic medallist Sushil, who missed the event owing to a shoulder injury, had insisted that a trial be held to determine who should ultimately represent India at the Rio Games.

“The Federation’s criterion has to be followed. We can’t interfere. It is an autonomous body. It is the responsibility of the Federation,” Sonowal had stated categorically at a ministry programme.

Not solely the Sports Ministry, the Wrestling Federation of India was additionally not in a position resolve the difficulty on the earliest, leaving room for hypothesis and controversy.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the worldwide company chargeable for containing drug abuse in sports activities, had then slammed India for sending a dope-tainted athlete to a significant match and he was despatched again dwelling, shaming the whole nationwide contingent.

These bumps might have been irritants, however they haven’t slowed down the expansion story of Indian sports activities powered by the TOPS and Khelo India initiatives.

Now, all eyes are on the Asian Games, which start a number of months later, after which the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Will Indian athletes script even greater success tales?