Former India athlete and sports activist Ashwini Nachappa today termed ace long jumper Anju Bobby George's resignation from Kerala Sports Council as "unfortunate" stating that it again proved that there is "more politics in sport than in politics."
"It is very very unfortunate that athletes have to go through this (citing Anju's case). There is more politics in sports than in politics, which should not happen," Nachappa told PTI during an interaction.
"When an athlete takes up a job, what is important is to monitor the progress that he or she makes in that position and there are many athletes who can do wonders in the administrative system. It's not that athletes cannot do it. We are just not given the opportunity and when we are given the opportunity it becomes political and that should not happen. So it is very very unfortunate," the celebrated athlete of yesteryears commented on the sidelines of a promotional event organised by Dabur Group.
Nachappa also lamented on the interference of politicians in running sports federations across India.
"We can't do away with it because every federation is run by politicians."
The 1990 Asian Games silver medallist is of the view that drug menace has become rampant across sporting disciplines.
"Most athletes are taking it (drugs). It's just a chance that you take and you get caught. But people are taking it across disciplines."
Commenting on the Russian doping scandal she said, "Russian athletes did that but it is sad for the rest of the athletes, who were clean are now being penalized," she sounded disappointed.
Talking about the Clean Sports India initiative and her fight against corruption, Nachappa said,"It's not that easy to kick out something that has been happening for the last 45 years. But I think Clean Sports India, which was launched in 2010 before Commonwealth Games, has brought out many issues that people were not aware of.
"Many people went behind bars and I think to a certain extent what we set out to do, we achieved. What we are now setting out to do is getting people, getting sportspersons involved in administrative roles. That is an ongoing process. We are also trying to bring in sports code for which we fought a lot. There needs to be unity among sportspersons," Nachappa signed off.
