Modi Govt’s flagship Khelo India’s ‘khel’ with sportspersons

The Modi government’s much celebrated first edition of ‘Khelo India’ has just concluded on February 8 and it has already opened a can of worms. The Union government had approved an upgraded Khelo India scheme, under which 1,000 selected athletes would receive an annual scholarship of ₹5lakh each for eight years. And this scholarship was put in place to ensure promising school children have the option of pursuing professional sports as a career option.

But is it really happening? Are the truly promising candidates being chosen? There are complaints arising from the Badminton quarters regarding the selection of players. A letter that has been written to Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and the secretaries of the sports ministry highlighting the irregularities in the selection of badminton candidates has many up in arms. The Badminton Association of India is headed by Himanta Biswa Sarma, a minister in the current Assam government-led by BJP. Himanta Biswa Sarma left Congress to join BJP in 2015.

According to Kumar Kundan, who has written the letter, “In the Badminton section, 32 players were selected. But, out of the 32 players in girls single category, only 11 players are from the top 20 All India ranking (Badminton Association of India ranking). Out of the remaining 21 players, 16 have no ranking whereas remaining five, have been ranked 42 and 44. Of the nine names specially recommended by BAI, seven are not eligible to play any BAI tournament this year because of their advanced age.”

According to Khelo India rules, 32 players, who are under 17, were to be selected from around the country. Of these, eight would be those top eight on the BAI rankings, the next 16 will be chosen by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI), which conducts tournaments around the country. The winners of these tournaments would be the 16. Of the last eight, six are to be wild card entries, one, a recommendation from the host state and the last person to be from a CBSE school.

The complaints from some of the players and parents are three-fold. Of the eight players in the girls’ section from the BAI list, five (Aakarshi Kashyap, Amolika Singh, Unnati Bisht, Trisha Hegde and Malavika Bansod) are not eligible to play in any of the Under 17 BAI tournaments because they have all crossed 17, according to BAI’s own rule book. Two others (Drithi Yateesh, Varsha Venkatesh), not from top eight are also not eligible to play for the same reasons.  In the boys’ segment, there is a CBI enquiry for age manipulation against Aakash Yadav, who played in the finals.

Secondly, all those who came through the SGFI tournaments don’t even figure on the BAI top 40 list, begging the question whether these are serious players or not. And all of these 16 played dismally, they were out by huge margins. Thirdly, all the six wildcard entries in the girls section were from the North-East states—Shejal Joshi, Sheetal Joshi, Sonal Joshi (Meghalaya), Taku Neha, Napi Tayam (Arunachal Pradesh and Sabina Kharga (Sikkim). Even in case of boys, five of the six wild card entries were from the North-East States – Shubhanshu Tiwari, Laa Takum, Suraj Chetry (Arunachal Pradesh), Geroge Kherbani (Meghalaya) and Andrew Lotzen (Manipur).

“A majority of the top-ranking players have been prevented from playing. They need assistance. They have promise. The only lame excuse which BAI would give for forwarding the names of players whose age is above 17 is that the tournament was scheduled in 2017. But, the fresh BAI rankings were released on January 6 and the names for Khelo India were finalised on January 15. So, why weren’t the fresh rankings considered. Why weren’t other top-ranked players considered for wild card entries, which would have improved the level of competitiveness of the tournament,” pointed out Kundan.

“Among the present top-ranked players, 7 out of the 10 of them, have not been able to participate. This has also ensured smooth sailing for all the BAI recommended players. Therefore, the badminton draw is an eye-wash as the result is known to everybody who has little knowledge about badminton talent available in the country at this stage,” adds Kundan.

Explaining the problem another parent, who did not wish to be identified, said, “The games and the scheme was introduced to identify top talent in the sports category and to incentivise them so that they can perform well for India in the future. But, if the selection itself reeks of favouritism and below-average talent, then how can one expect the country to do well. If the wild-card entries or the SGFI players had played extremely well, then such questions would not have been raised.”

In the wrestling segment, it has already been reported that there were only three entries in the 42-kg freestyle wrestling event, ensuring a podium finish for all of them. In almost all other weight categories — both boys’ and girls’ wrestling — there were only about 8-12 participants. And in case of athletics, all the junior athletes who have won fare dismally when compared with athletes from other countries, including America and Britain.

National Herald’s attempts to reach various officials of the sports ministry, BAI and Khelo India office went unanswered. NH tried to reach Himanta Biswa Sarma (BAI Chief); Devender Singh (Sr VP- BAI); Arvind Singhal, Ashok Singh (VP); Rahul Bhatnagar (Secretary of Sports); Inder Dhamija (Joint Secretary-sports); Pankaj Rag (Secretary-sports development). Most of them asked NH to call another person as they were not responsible for Khelo India.