"It is important to emphasise, again and again, that making sports a mass activity is also a prerequisite for building a healthy nation. To build a culture of fitness and health as a national movement, there is nothing more effective, more low-cost, and more widely accessible as yoga," he said in his blog suggesting a six-point action plan to make India a global sports power.
Advani said, "I must mention here the phenomenal contribution that Baba Ramdev has made to popularising yoga in recent years. Yoga and pranayam should be encouraged everywhere, for every age group."
His praise of Ramdev comes days after BJP chief Nitin Gadkari shared the stage with the yoga guru during his during his fast at Ramlila Maidan here on the black money issue.
Referring to India's performance at the just-concluded London Olympics, Advani said that it has made him "both happy and sad".
"Happy because our tally of six medals in the 2012 Games has been the best so far - two silver and four bronze. At the outset, I am also sad. A nation of 1.2 billion people, accounting for one-sixth of the global population, winning only six medals - and no gold this time, unlike the one gold Abhinav Bindra had won in Beijing - is a highly disconcerting fact," he said.
"I think that our national policy must prioritise provision of sports facilities in schools and colleges. Sporting talent in India cannot blossom unless our children and youth begin to participate in sports in large numbers," Advani said.
Seeking corporate sponsorship for the promotion of sports, he said, "Although I am a great fan of Indian cricket, I believe that it has now become necessary to remove the huge and costly asymmetry between cricket and other sports in mass consciousness and also in resource allocation. This requires a strong national-level intervention in the policy for corporate sponsorships, advertising, allocation of TV time."
