One of the many benefactors of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s win in the recently concluded Assam Assembly elections was undoubtedly Jitendra Singh, pictured above. The 59-year-old Minister of State for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region was given additional charge of the Union Sports Ministry following the exit of Sarbananda Sonowal, who was sworn in as the chief minister of Assam on Tuesday.
While Sonowal was praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his performance during his tenure as sports minister, he also came in for much criticism after appearing to be more focused on the state elections rather than his central ministry post. As Singh takes over the reins, he will know that much will be expected of him.
1. Solving the mess in Indian boxing
A record eight Indian boxers qualified for the London Olympics in 2012. Two, Vijender Singh and Devendro Singh, progressed till the quarter-finals, while Mary Kom went one better and won the bronze.
Fast forward four years later and only one Indian boxer, Shiva Thapa in the bantamweight category, has qualified for the Olympics. Kom is also out of contention after losing in the pre-quarter-finals of the World Championships in Astana on Saturday.
The reason for the regression though is not surprising: Indian boxing is in a mess. The Indian Boxing Federation was banned in 2012 and since then the sport has been in turmoil, run by an ad-hoc committee. Indian boxers were even forced to compete under the flag of the International Boxing Association rather than the Tricolour, since India’s federation had been de-recognised.
Fortunately, there's some hope, as the AIBA has recently agreed to extend the deadline for the formation of a new Indian boxing governing body. But the damage has already been done and if India needs to get its house in order, the sports ministry has to take decisive steps to ensure sportspersons are not affected by factionalism within the federations.
2. The doping problem
In a damning report released by the World Anti-Doping Association, India was ranked third in the list of violations, behind only Russia and Italy. The highest number of doping violations happened in athletics (29 cases), followed by powerlifting (23) and weightlifting (22).
The unfortunate thing about this development was that it hardly came as a surprise – a 2013 report also had similar figures for India when it came to athletes testing positive for doping.
Doping is the current hot potato in international sport, especially with speculation that 31 athletes who tested positive for banned substances could be barred from competing in this years’ Olympics. While the identity of the athletes has not been revealed, the custodians of Indian sport need to take firm measures to ensure this problem is stamped out.
Efforts like the outreach programme launched by the National Anti-Doping Agency to spread awareness about banned substances are laudable but are only a first step. Much more needs to be done by the Sports Ministry to ensure athletes from financially poor backgrounds do not become a victim of the doping menace.
3. The Indian Olympic Association
As the apex body at the head of all of India’s Olympic efforts, the Indian Olympic Association needlessly finds itself at the centre of controversy. The IOA was banned in 2012 for allowing an election tainted with irregularities. The ban was revoked only after a fresh election where Narayana Ramachandran was elected president.
But the problems never stopped. In September 2015, the Delhi High Court delivered a scathing verdict against Ramachandran, calling on India’s Sports Ministry to take back his Rashtriya Khel Protshan Puraskar award after he was found guilty of making false claims about his contributions to the sport of squash. Narinder Batra, president of Hockey India, even alleged that the IOA president had offered him money to vote for him.
It is frankly an embarrassment for India at the world stage. Can the new sports minister kindly step in and clean out the stables once and for all?
4. Pull out all stops out for the 2017 U17 FIFA World Cup
In February 2016, India hosted the 12th edition of the South Asian Games in Guwahati and Shillong. Despite India’s record 208 medals, the entire event was beset by organisational deficiencies. From the start, there were complaints about the absence of a proper Sports Village, which meant that athletes and officials from participating countries were put up in different hotels.
The venue for the football event was shifted at the last moment. And after the Nepal football team had won the gold, their national anthem was cut-off midway.
It brought back uncomfortable memories of the last time India held a national sport event, the Commonwealth Games in 2010, which was clouded with corruption allegations. India are all set to host another big event – the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2017. It will be the first time that India will be hosting an international tournament of this magnitude and has the potential to change the football scenario in the country.
But for that, the sports ministry has to ensure that the event is organised and completed without a hitch – without a repeat of the mess witnessed in the South Asian Games.