After 4 years, Punjab revives Shaheed Bhagat Singh Games

Gaurav Kanthwal

Tribune News Service

chandigarh, july 4

The Punjab government has woken up after a four-year slumber to organise the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Punjab Games in the state this year. Four years ago, this event was promised as an annual affair, and touted as “priority Games”.

But they were held only in the inaugural year, 2011, a year before the 2012 Assembly elections. Ironically or coincidentlly, this time too the Games would be held in the year preceding the Assembly elections.

Four years may be a long enough time to forget the very name of the event. In 2011, it was the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Punjab Games. This time, the event has been re-christened as the Bhagat Singh Punjab Games.

Sportspersons, however, remember clearly how Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal had promised that it would be an annual affair. The state’s athletes also remember how a sum of Rs 56 lakhs was spent on the opening ceremony alone in 2011 at Ludhiana. Actors Akshay Kumar and singer Harbhajan Mann performed at the ceremony, and their fee was never disclosed. For the opening ceremony, all the 1,280 VIP chairs in the stadium were changed, financed from a Rs 3.57 crore fund from the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA).

How can the players forget that prize money of Rs 2.31 crore for 16 different disciplines was promised to be given to the players?

“Ideally, the games should have been organised every year but after organising it once, the government realised that it could not afford this fanfare every year. Also, there is politics involved in it,” said a senior official of the Sports Department on the condition of anonymity.

The Games may not have been held regularly, but the promises have been broken regularly. In 2011, Sukhbir Badal, while inaugurating the sporting extravaganza, had said, “I have institutionalised the arrangement that these games become an annual feature in the sports calendar of the state. One of the main objectives of these games is to wean away the youth from drugs...”

On February 5, 2013, felicitating the third World Kabaddi Cup winners in Chandigarh, Punjab Education minister Sikandar Singh Maluka announced: “The Punjab government has decided to organise Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh State Games 2013 to nurture the upcoming talent in the state.”

But the event wasn’t held in 2013, or even 2014.

Recently, the state government gave out a dole of Rs 2 lakh each to sports associations affiliated with the Punjab Olympic Association. Also, the recruitment process of 125 world renowned Punjabi sportspersons would be done in the state.

Observers believe that all this was done with an eye on next year’s elections and that the Games are being revived for the same reason.

Let the Games begin.

Scene hots up

With Punjab Assembly elections slated in 2017, the sporting scene in the state is likely to hot up in the coming days. The sixth Kabaddi World Cup will be held from November 15 to 28 in 14 stadia.

The Badal government will also host an East Punjab and West Punjab Sports tourney later this year. The tournament will be of five traditional games only.