Kiren Rijiju appeals to sports federations to stop infighting causing harm to athletes

While a number of Indian athletes have broken the shackles to make the nation proud in various sports, a number of players have been victims of infighting within their respective federations. The creation of political factionalism in sports organizations have often led them to be de-recognized by the sports ministry, and Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has now come out and appealed to the federations to sort out personal differences and focus on bettering the players instead.

Earlier this year, the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) was suspended by the Sports Ministry for misgovernance and for violating the National Sports Code. Rijiju has now come hard at the PCI for creating groupism, and for failing to keep the player's best interests in mind.

"Groupism exists in all federations, but often it leads to suspension either from the Sports Ministry or the global body. This is the worst thing to happen, as our players have to go and compete under the Olympic flag. Our athletes have the right to play under the Indian flag," he was quoted as saying by the NNIS.

"I request and appeal to all the sports federations in India to keep politics away from sports to make sure that the players don't suffer because of them. No person should indulge in such an activity that causes harm to the efforts of the athletes."

Rijiju also spoke about the suspension of the Archery Association of India (AAI) by World Archery this August. The AAI had appointed two parallel bodies, with Union Minister Arjun Munda leading one faction and BVP Rao leading the other. The prolonged confusion over which was the legitimately-elected body caused the AAI to be delisted as a member in July. The body had time till August to end the confusion, but failure to do so led to its suspension.

The Indian archers competed under the India flag in the recent Asian Archery Championships.

Rijiju added, "We are looking into the issue. It was unfortunate that our archers played under the neutral flag in the recent archery competition. It is imperative that the government, federations and the sportsmen come together as one to ensure the best for Indian sports."