Of late, the school kids (both boys and girls) have been bringing a lot of laurels for Arunachal Pradesh at various national level sports meets, especially the Karatakes, the weightlifters and junior footballers. The Karatakes won a large number of medals at the first-ever North East Olympics held in Imphal a couple of months ago followed by good performance by our junior football team at Jhunjuhunwala in Rajasthan. Now recently, the state weightlifters have won nearly a dozen medals in Nagpur including a gold medal. Two other lifters (P. Rashmi and Christina Tayeng) came closer to the gold losing it only by one and two kgs differences. Our young karatakes will again be in action at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh from tomorrow (December 26) at the national championships. Hopefully, they will also be flying the Arunachal flag higher there.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, while chairing the second Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Sports Authority of Arunachal (SAA) in Itanagar  last year, beckoned SAA and the Department of Sports to proactively work for development of sports as ‘potential in the youths is immense in Arunachal Pradesh’. Coordination, he asserted is urgently needed amongst the SSA, Department of Sports and various sports associations including the Arunachal Olympic Association for growth of sports and sportspersons in the State.  “There’s no dearth of talent. But we have failed to nurture these talents by providing them the basic facilities,” he pointed out in that meeting.

True. As the chief minister had said, Arunachal has talent and potential. The moot question, however, is whether this potential has been tapped and the talents groomed. The answer is a big no. For the state officials concerned, when boys and girls go outside to take part in some national meets it is a photo shoot opportunity and give eulogizing speeches to be published in the newspapers and local TV channels. Had they really cared for the sports, the bronze medalists would have become silver medalists and the silver medalists adorning golden ones. But alas, that is not the case. Many are winning medals on their individual capacity and coaching they got at individual levels. The state sports department must step up its game. Time has come for the state government to completely revamp its sports policy and catch the talents at an early age and groom them. Then, maybe in another 10-15 years we can really produce sportsmen and women of international caliber.