Olympics: Politics of Claiming Credit for Medals
An Indian athlete’s javelin throw has won a gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics. Neeraj Chopra, the proud son of a farmer, created history with this gold medal, the first in Tokyo Olympics and the second for India in the history of Olympics itself. This momentous win that needs to be celebrated is a joyous as well as a sad occasion. It is at the same time embarrassing that a country such as India boasting enormous human resources could garner only two gold medals when several poor countries in the world have bagged gold medals by the dozens and are celebrating. It is also true that the talented Indian youth are winning these medals for the country by overcoming all obstacles that the politicization of sports has created for them. While Ravi Kumar Dahiya and Mirabai Chanu won silver medals in wrestling and weightlifting respectively, P.V. Sindhu in badminton, Lovlina Borgohain in women’s boxing, and Bajarang Punia in wrestling were the bronze medal winners besides the Indian men’s hockey team that created history. The performance of the women’s hockey team won the hearts of Indians even in their defeat. The achievement of the athletes assumes even more significance in the light of the neglect that Indian athletics faces by both the administration and the people alike. These athletes who faced all odds and emerged successful are similar to the flowers blooming in fire.
The developments that followed the victory of these athletes is true to the popular saying: ‘Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan.’ Politicians are trying to gain mileage out of the success of these medal winning athletes. At the same time, their achievements are also being projected as that of the government. While on the one hand, the Prime Minister is playing political dramatics on the pretext of congratulating the athletes, on the other hand, fake screenshots are being shared as though the Prime Minister himself participated in the Olympics and won medals! Fake news is being peddled to make it sound that Prime Minister Modi is responsible for the achievements of the athletes. While congratulating the hockey team, Modi issued several unnecessary political statements and used the occasion to hurl allegations against the Opposition. This is nothing but an insult to sporting ethics. Sports is beyond caste, religion, and politics. Politicians, who refuse to understand this, try to intervene and project the achievements of sportsmen as their own.
Instead of trying to share the glory of sportspersons, the least those who govern us can do is to introspect on what exactly is their contribution towards this success.. If the Modi government had announced programmes, grants, or special gifts to encourage athletics as these young men and women were toiling to make it to the Olympics, at least then the government’s attempt to politicize their achievement could have made some sense. Forget providing additional grants, the government even reduced sports budget by Rs 230 crore. It also cut by Rs 232 crore the grants under ‘Khelo India.’ Also, it cut by 50 per cent the grants given for the national sports development. It also reduced grants to modernize the Commonwealth Games Stadium from Rs 75 crore to Rs 30 crore. Ironically, at the same time, it spent a lot of money for the development of the world’s largest cricket stadium in Gujarat and the credit for giving the stadium his own name should go to Prime Minister Modi. He is now facing a lot of criticism for trying to project in the media as though he participated in the Olympics and won medals.
It is disappointing if an analysis is made about how the javelin section that got India its gold was encouraged by the system. Coach Uwe Hohn had expressing his outrage about the lack of encouragement in June last year. He had issued a public statement that ‘the country’s sports associations have completely failed to adequately prepare the athletes who are participating in the Olympics. It has not been possible to provide the required nutrition for its athletes.’ He said: ‘I am not sure if the sports associations are negligent about this or if they are not even aware about these aspects. When I came here to take on this assignment, I was confident that I would be able to bring about some change. But now I don’t think it’s possible,’. When Hohn issued this statement, nobody could have predicted that our athlete Chopra would bag the gold medal. After winning the medal, he has been flooded with gifts galore. While several states announced cash awards, several organizations have come forward to indulge him with gifts perhaps to gain publicity. It is heartening to see this but more than the encouragement an athlete receives after winning, he needs to be encouraged in his journey towards victory. While the government gifts Rs 1 crore to those who have won a gold medal, the same government is not willing to spend the same amount to prepare these athletes to win.
This is similar to the mindset of a farmer who adds manure to coconut trees if the trees give good yield whereas the trees need good manure, water, and nourishment from the beginning to be able to give good yield. India is a country of a rough terrain with hills and rocks. It is a country of hardworking people who struggle and toil hard. In such a country, it is easy to create athletes. But this process should start from the ground level by identifying suitable persons and cleansing the sports sector of politics. It is not possible to expect good yields tomorrow by sowing seeds today. Long-term programmes should be designed. Athletes are born in poor families where children struggle because of malnutrition. If children grow without nutritious food, how can they achieve anything in the future? Talented athletes should be identified in childhood itself and nurtured from young age. Only then can politicians stake claim in their achievements.
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Fact Check: Beware of fake Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan website’s claim to offer job opportunities
Claim: sarvashikshaabhiyan.com website is related to the Government of India and offers job opportunities.
Fact: The website is not an authentic one, it is duping the job aspirants of their money.
Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan is a school education scheme in India that aims to improve the quality of education and ensure universal access to school. The scheme not only provides support for the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 but has also been aligned with the recommendations of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
It encompasses a comprehensive approach to school education, including initiatives like universal access to schooling, foundational literacy and numeracy, gender equity, inclusive education, quality improvement, teacher training, vocational education, sports and physical education, digital initiatives, and support for children with special needs, effectively combining the previously separate schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), and Teacher Education (TE) under one umbrella; essentially covering the entire spectrum of schooling from pre-primary to class 12. The Central Government recruits teachers and other staff under this Scheme for various posts across the country.
A website named sarvashikshaabhiyan is in circulation with several job recruitment links posted here. The website claims to offer employment opportunities to aspiring candidates. Job opportunities for primary school teachers, lab technicians, chaprasis, etc. can be seen on the website.
Here is the screenshot of the website home page.
Here is the archive link to the website pages.
Fact Check:
The website makes a False claim. It is not a genuine website and is not related to the Government of India’s Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan scheme. The home page of the website does not show the Government of India’s logo and is very static in nature.
When we clicked on one of the recruitment ads posted on this website, we could see that it mentions that total job vacancies are 98,305, which is a very large number. The qualification needed for teachers is 10th, 12th or above.
When clicked on apply now, the website gathers all the details of the applicant including the phone number and email id, etc. At the end of the process, we can see a QR code for the payment of the application fee which is Rs 950.
Even though the UPI ID shown on this screenshot is sarvashiksha123@abcdicici, the user name on the bank states ‘Deepak Kumar’, not the name of any government department or scheme.
We also found that PIB fact check in its post, declared that this website is fake and is not associated with Government of India.
Beware!⚠️#Fake website 'https://t.co/A8nJO6T8Si' is posing as the official website of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan & offering fake job opportunities#PIBFactCheck
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) December 19, 2024
▶️This website is not associated with GOI
▶️Official website: https://t.co/pCjN1ZGIMW
Read: https://t.co/Pi56ELk7hn pic.twitter.com/ptvKhIsVS1
PIB also published a clarification on its website stating – It has come to the notice of the Ministry of Education that in order to dupe innocent applicants several websites have been created with the name similar to the schemes. (like www.sarvashiksha.online,
These websites offer employment opportunities to aspiring candidates and misguide the job aspirants through the layout of the website, content, and presentation in a manner similar to the original website and ask for money from the respondents for the applications. While these websites have come to the notice of the Department of School Education and Literacy, there may be more such other websites/social media accounts promising jobs and demanding money for the recruitment process.
The general public is, hereby, advised to avoid applying for job opportunities on such websites and to ensure that the websites are authorized by visiting the official website of the concerned Department/personal inquiry/telephone call/e-mail to safeguard their own interest. Any person applying on these websites will be doing so at his own risk & cost and shall be responsible for the consequences thereof.’ This clarification was published in March 2022. But the website has resurfaced again and is duping the aspiring candidates in the name of recruitment opportunities.
Hence, the website https://www.
(This story was originally published by telugupost, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)
