Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju Tuesday made it clear that he will not tolerate mismanagement of national federations and will take action if the interests of athletes are affected.
Some sports federations, including Archery Association of India (AAI) and Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI), have been experiencing factional feuds and Rijiju said his prime concern is to protect the interests of these sports and the players.
"Govt cannot intervene or intrude in the running of federations but we will not be a mute spectator if a sport is destroyed by mismanagement in any federation," Rijiju said during an interaction.
"It reflects upon us as a nation if there is a problem in a federation. If they run into conflict with international federations, then the government has to be consulted."
"I am still archery association president (of Arunachal Pradesh) but now I will resign. I will ask the state unit to conduct a meeting and start the process of electing a new president."
"Our sports secretary is already meeting with the federations one by one and I am planning to meet them soon. We are going to work together, we have to ensure the game does not suffer due to factions within sports bodies, that is my primary concern."
"It is not only about policies, it is a question of facilities and availability of experts and management. We have to do some preparatory ground work before I speak up. Give me some time and we will come up with better policies and steps."
"I don't want to leave anything in supporting the athletes. With the kind of preparation, I am very hopeful for 2020 Olympics. We have just over a year and a year is a good time to re-look and ensure that all the preparation are well on course so that India produce best ever performance in 2020 Olympics."
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