As India celebrates historic Tokyo Gold, Cong targets Centre over sports infrastructure

As the Tokyo Olympics 2020 nears its end, the Congress party has a list of suggestions for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central government. Taking to his official Twitter handle, senior Congres leader P Chidambaram suggested that the government start working, and release funds for the development of sports in the country 'right now'. He added, probably in a bid to take a swipe at the government, that Central Vista and Bullet trains and other 'vanity projects' can wait or suffer a cut of 25 per cent. India has so far won 7 medals in the Tokyo Olympics- 1 Gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze. 

Chidambaram lists down suggestions for the government 

As part of his suggestions, he asked the sports' body to appoint coaches, fitness experts, physiotherapists and counsellors for the sportsmen of the country. He wrote on Twitter, "Identify young stars in the age group 14-18 and start grooming them for 2024, 2028 and 2032."

Remarkably, Chidambaram's string of tweets come on a day India won its first Gold in the Tokyo Olympics, and also the first-ever in 100 years in track and field events at the mega carnival of sports, all thanks to javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra. During a brief conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Olympian thanked the BJP-led government for its 'continuous support' when things were 'difficult'. In fact, even in 2020, informing the country about his preparation for this edition of the Olympics, Neeraj Chopra had written, "I am training in Europe currently and am thankful for the efforts made by the government and the Indian embassy, despite the tough visa rules."

Besides Neeraj Chopra's gold, in the Tokyo Olympics 2020, India has also got 2 silver and 4 bronze. The silver medals are won by Ravi Kumar Dahiya and Mirabai Chanu in Wrestling (57 KG) and Weight Lifting (49 Kg Women) respectively. On the other hand, the bronze medals were won by PV Sindhu in Women’s Singles Badminton, Lovlina Borgohain in Women’s Welterweight Boxing, Bajarang Punia in Wrestling (65 Kg). The Indian team also won a bronze in Hockey. With this, the total medal count of India stands at 7. 

Earlier in the 2012 London Games, 6 medals were won by India; in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 3 medals were won by India, and in the 2004 Athens Olympics, only 1 medal was won by India.