If it's not Hockey then will India ever get its National Game veritably
Yes, we may be assuming Hockey,
the game which fetched six consecutive Olympic gold medals, to be our
national game but the fact is none of the games or sports played in the
country has the status of "National Game." But, how can we, a country of
more than a billion people, stay without a national game.
In an RTI reply, the Sports Ministry has made it clear that it has not declared any sports as national game whereas the web portal of Government has posted an article glorifying field hockey under the heading 'National Game'.
The curiosity about national symbols drove Lucknow-based 10-year-old Aishwarya Parashar to file an RTI application to the Prime Minister's Office seeking certified copies of orders related to declaration of National anthem, song, sport, animal, bird, flower and symbol.
Her queries were transferred to the Home Ministry which forwarded the query related to National Sport to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
In a reply, Sports Ministry under Secretary Shiv Pratap Singh Tomar wrote in Hindi to Aishwarya that the Ministry has not declared any sport or game to be the National Game.
After the sudden disclosure, Indian sports have lost a bit of identity as a national sport is considered to be an intrinsic part of the culture of a nation. The reason for the 'no national game' status can be attributed to the downslide of Indian hockey in the last three decades. The abysmal status of management of hockey affairs strengthens the relegation of the game from the coveted status.
Surprisingly, the government portal under the head National symbol has given details of 14 such symbols which include - flag, bird, flower, tree, anthem, river, aquatic animal, state emblem, calendar, animal, song, fruit, game, currency symbol.
The portal says, "Indians of all demographics backgrounds across the world are proud of these National Symbols as they infuse a sense of pride and patriotism in every Indian's heart."
Then where went our National game in reality? Doesn't it infuse any 'sense of pride and patriotism' in the hearts of 1.25 billion Indians or it's just for namesake (that's what the portal indicates I guess)?
A few days ago when my 10-year-old little sister came to me asking for helping in doing her assignment in National Game and when I replied that recent news argues we don't have anything such written in our constitution, she was shocked. A minute after while she came back with her text-book and showed me the lesson which reads 'Hockey as National Game'. I realised that's wrong. We can't teach a fake fact of national importance to our newer generations. We need to rectify that. If it's not Hockey, then what will be our National Game? The Ministry need to settle this out soon neither the Question: "Will India ever get her National Game veritably?" will remain an unsolved Question for ever until another RTI forces them to do so, for then it would have been a matter of shame.
In an RTI reply, the Sports Ministry has made it clear that it has not declared any sports as national game whereas the web portal of Government has posted an article glorifying field hockey under the heading 'National Game'.
The curiosity about national symbols drove Lucknow-based 10-year-old Aishwarya Parashar to file an RTI application to the Prime Minister's Office seeking certified copies of orders related to declaration of National anthem, song, sport, animal, bird, flower and symbol.
Her queries were transferred to the Home Ministry which forwarded the query related to National Sport to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
In a reply, Sports Ministry under Secretary Shiv Pratap Singh Tomar wrote in Hindi to Aishwarya that the Ministry has not declared any sport or game to be the National Game.
After the sudden disclosure, Indian sports have lost a bit of identity as a national sport is considered to be an intrinsic part of the culture of a nation. The reason for the 'no national game' status can be attributed to the downslide of Indian hockey in the last three decades. The abysmal status of management of hockey affairs strengthens the relegation of the game from the coveted status.
Surprisingly, the government portal under the head National symbol has given details of 14 such symbols which include - flag, bird, flower, tree, anthem, river, aquatic animal, state emblem, calendar, animal, song, fruit, game, currency symbol.
The portal says, "Indians of all demographics backgrounds across the world are proud of these National Symbols as they infuse a sense of pride and patriotism in every Indian's heart."
Then where went our National game in reality? Doesn't it infuse any 'sense of pride and patriotism' in the hearts of 1.25 billion Indians or it's just for namesake (that's what the portal indicates I guess)?
A few days ago when my 10-year-old little sister came to me asking for helping in doing her assignment in National Game and when I replied that recent news argues we don't have anything such written in our constitution, she was shocked. A minute after while she came back with her text-book and showed me the lesson which reads 'Hockey as National Game'. I realised that's wrong. We can't teach a fake fact of national importance to our newer generations. We need to rectify that. If it's not Hockey, then what will be our National Game? The Ministry need to settle this out soon neither the Question: "Will India ever get her National Game veritably?" will remain an unsolved Question for ever until another RTI forces them to do so, for then it would have been a matter of shame.
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