Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Sunday stated that calling for urgent trials for social media sensations were among decisions taken under pressure to appear hands-on on his job.

Notably, social media sensations like Kambala jockey Srinivas Gowda of Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh’s Rameshwar Gurjar made headlined last year for running in record time.

Advertisement

They were supposed to have completed the 100-metre sprints in 11 seconds. Netizens, including some prominent names from various domains, dubbed them the next Usain Bolt.

“In Madhya Pradesh, somebody had a video of a village boy’s running and posted it on social media, commented that he runs faster than Usain Bolt. When it became viral, I could have ignored it but suppose I don’t react on that time, people will say the sports minister is silent, is not taking cognizance,” he said. (via PTI)

However, Gurjar failed to live up to the expectation in the trial and barely managed to complete 100-metre distance in 12.9 seconds.

“Shivraj Singh Chouhan also asked me to look into the matter. So I sent my SAI team to test the guy in Bhopal. I knew his capability but the country doesn’t know what is the nature of sports. People just started saying he runs faster than Bolt and that is because lack of awareness,” Rijiju added.

“During the test, he wouldn’t even compete with the junior guys forget the seniors, he can’t run even 13 seconds flat in 100m. He never trained, he was 25-26 so age was also not on his side, he didn’t know how to wear spikes,” he said.

The 48-year-old also shed light upon the entire story revolving around the Kambala jockey Gowda. Video clips of him running a distance of 100 metres in just 9.55 seconds had surfaced.

“Then 4-5 months back a news broke out that somebody broke Usain Bolt’s record in a bull race in Karnataka. Even some of the professional people, some of the businessmen, some of the renowned people of India stated that now this guy will bring Olympic gold in 100m,” Rijiju said.

“The problem is people don’t have knowledge and understanding. If I don’t respond then they will say the sports minister is silent.

“People must be thinking that what is the sports minister doing, he is responding to such kinds of amateur talks but I had to show sections who don’t know sports that I am hands-on with Indian sports and I am there for the athletes. I will give all the opportunities to all potentials, so I had to show that,” he said.

The minister also stated that it is high time people expand their knowledge about sports other than cricket which can, in turn, help India become a sporting powerhouse.

“Many people complained to me that government do not contribute or support enough for the development of sports in India. Let me make it very clear knowledge about sports in India is very, very low. People know only about cricket, people don’t know about other sports,” Rijiju said.

(With quoted and inputs from PTI)