By IANS
New Delhi : In the wake of India’s hockey and football triumphs, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi Monday urged that both the games should be reinstated in the priority list of the sports ministry.
Raising the issue in parliament, Lok Sabha member Kalmadi claimed that both the sports had done well to merit reconsideration by the ministry, which Mani Shankar Aiyar heads.
Hockey and football were demoted from the priority to general list this May.
“The football and hockey teams have performed exceedingly well by winning the Nehru Cup and the Asia Cup respectively,” Kalmadi said.
Kalmadi was referring to India’s Nehru Cup football triumph here recently and the hockey team’s Asia Cup title win in Chennai Sunday.
The football title came in a tournament in which most nations sent their second strong teams. India is currently rated 151st in the world by the world football body FIFA.
The Asia Cup hockey title, however, deserves kudos, though experts point out that India has still not qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
In a statement later in the day, Kalmadi said he was supported on the issue by Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, president of the All India Football Federation, Jagdish Tytler, president of the Judo Federation of India, and Vijay Kumar Malhotra, chief of the Archery Association of India. They all are Members of Parliament.
“The general mood of the house on the sporting success was very upbeat and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chaterjee noted that since parliament seemed to be of the unanimous view on this matter, the sports ministry should take note of this,” said Kalmadi, also chairman of the organising committee of the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.
“The Indian hockey team has delivered a fitting reply to all those who had sought to bring its morale down.”
In recent days, Kalmadi has intensified verbal attacks on Aiyar as they are pulling in different directions on a proposed sports policy.
Among other things, the policy draft envisages an apex ‘regulatory authority’ to oversee sports, but Kalmadi is vehemently against it.
The football and hockey triumphs seem to have given Kalmadi another tool to fight Aiyar.