Olympic
silver-medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore being appointed as the new Sports
Minister after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government went in for a
major Cabinet reshuffle on Sunday morning, hope floats on sportspersons getting
a real leg-up in terms of assistance from the government.
It was a never ending debate whether it should only be
sportsperson who should be given the Sports Ministry or to stick with career
politicians. Now, with Olympic silver-medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore
being appointed as the new Sports Minister after the Prime
Minister Narendra Modi-led government went in for a major Cabinet
reshuffle on Sunday morning, hope floats on sportspersons getting a real leg-up
in terms of assistance from the government. He has succeeded Vijay Goyal as the
Sports Minister and is the first sportsperson to become the head of the Sports
Ministry. But can it be a new dawn for the Indian sports and a step towards PM
Modi’s 2020 Olympic mission of making India into a sports power-house? Despite
India’s gigantic talent pool, it has performed under par on the world stage. In
2016 Rio Olympics India could only manage two medals. If an analysis is done on
Rathore’s resume, he is the first Indian shooter to win an Olympic medal after
his silver at the 2004 Athens Games. He also has three gold medals from the
Commonwealth Games to his name from 2002 and 2006, along with a silver. In 2004
and 2006, he won two World Championship golds as well in Sydney and Cairo
respectively.
