Former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, who could not make his debut address as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, posted his speech on Facebook on Friday.
“There were some things I wanted to reach to you yesterday. I will try to do so now,” he said, starting a 14-minute-long speech on the importance of sports for the nation.
Tendulkar said he wanted to transform India from being a “sport-loving nation to a sport-playing nation”, and stressed on the need for policy changes and investment to improve the country’s sports infrastructure.
He said sports, health and India’s fitness have an impact on the economy. While India is a young nation, it also has the most diabetics in the world and ranked third in obesity, he said. The economic burden of these diseases will not let the nation progress, he said.
He cited the example of India’s North East states, which have a “vibrant sporting culture”, and said the rest of the country must also develop a similar culture.
Tendulkar asked for policy changes to ensure students get additional marks for representing their schools, districts and states. He proposed developing not smart cities, but “smart sports cities”, and said open spaces and playgrounds in the country need to be retained.
On Thursday, Tendulkar tried to begin his speech in the Rajya Sabha around 2.10 pm, but could not because of Congress members shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They had forced the house to be adjourned till Friday. Congress MPs have been disrupting Parliament proceedings, demanding an apology from Modi for alleging that his predecessor Manmohan Singh spoke to Pakistani officials about the Gujarat elections.
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