Harjap Singh Aujla
I was on my annual trip to India during the winter of 2001. My home state Punjab hosted the national games. During those days Mehal Singh Bhullar IPS was the ADGP and then the DGP heading sports. He was posted in the vast PAP Complex in Jalandhar Cantonment. Bhullar went into overdrive the day it was decided that Punjab will host the national games in 2001. He will get up at 4:00 am and visit every playground to see the athletes toiling hard. In whichever discipline he needed more man-power, he used to verbally or in writing convey his demand to the Chief Minister and in majority of cases the request was granted. The athletes peaked at the right time and it appeared that the Punjabi sportsmen will steal the limelight. Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Chandigarh hosted the events. When the curtains fell, Punjab as expected won the overall Championship. The performance of Punjabis in track and field events was simply outstanding. That was then, let us see what is the position now in 2025.
The 2025 games were held in poll-bound Bihar. With megacities like Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur loaded with the most modern sports infrastructure and all weather sporting arenas in its kitty Maharashtra was bound to perform well and it did top the medals table with 58 gold, 47 silver and 53 bronze medals achieving an aggregate of 158 medals. In this case the double-engine government did what was expected from it.
The second position was attained by another double-engine government run our neighbour Haryana. Aided by top federal dollars Haryana accumulated 39 gold, 27silver and 51 bronze medals for a grand total of 117 medals. Then came third position winner Rajasthan, 4th position went to Karnataka, Delhi with the second best infrastructure obtained 5th position, Tamilnadu got 6th position, 7th spot was claimed by U.P. Kerala came 8th, communal violence hit Manipur, attained 9th spot, 10th position was claimed by Madhya Pradesh and Assam came 11th, followed by Telangana which won 23 medals. Hapless Punjab could win only 8 gold, 14 silver and 25 bronze medals. Punjab’s humiliation was most embarrassing. We lost in both categories (men and women) in hockey. I attribute this humiliation to poor selection of the teams. We lost in both categories of Basketball. In athletics we were nowhere, not even in the throws.
I think by denying modern infrastructure the centre sent us a strong message to fall in line. Punjab’s own government appears to be running like headless chicken, not knowing what to do. If we are sensitive enough, we should pause and ponder over what happened to our ego. The former VC of GNDU Dr. Jaspal Singh Sandhu requested the centre to install a modern Olympic track, replace the worn out Astroturf and to give India;s top sporting university an all weather aquatic centre. In spite of promises nothing was given This impaired Punjab’s overall performance significantly. In the hindsight when we take stock of everything, we in Punjab have no sports policy. The land of the physically fit fugures nowhere on the sports map of India.
