"NE is Dominating Sports Sector," Says MP Birendra Baishya at 'The Conclave 2023'

The second session of the second day of ‘The Conclave 2023’ organized by the Pratidin Media Network at the Ashok in New Delhi was on the topic ‘North East India’s Sporting Dream’ where Rajya Sabha MP Birendra Prasad Baishya stated that recently the athletes from the Northeast region have started to dominate the sports sector.

Apart from MP Birendra Prasad Baishya, the panelists of the session included Aastha Chaudhury, Swimmer; Preeti Dahiya, Sports Journalist; and Abhijit Bhattacharrya, Former Captain of Indian Volleyball Team.

The session was moderated by senior journalist Sunit Kumar Bhuyan.

During the session, Birendra Prasad Baishya, referring to Lovlina Borgohain being the flag bearer for the Indian team at this year’s Asian Games, said, “I am confident that in future Lovlina Borgohain will be the flag bearer for the Indian team in the Olympics game, either in 2024 Paris Olympics or later.”

Speaking on how players of the northeast region are dominating the sports sector, he said, “Northeastern region is already quite mature in the sports level. The first Indian sports university will be established in the Northeast i.e., Manipur. Not only that, today Indian sports, especially Olympic medals, Asian medals and Commonwealth medals are dominated by players of the northeast region. This is the achievement of this region.”

Meanwhile, when the moderator, Sunit Bhuyan asked if people of Assam and the Northeast region in the present time can choose sports as a profession, Abhijit Bhattacharyya said, “People coming to witness a session on Sports is already an achievement itself. It is a dream that drives us. When Dipankar Bhattacharyya went to play in the Olympics, he was the first badminton player to reach the quarter-finals. Upon his arrival, the state government led by the then-chief minister Hiteshwar Saikia gifted him a Maruti-800 car. That vehicle was our dream at that time. I started dreaming that if I also played for the country, I would receive a similar car and travel with my parents.”

Speaking on infrastructure in our state, Bhattacharyya said, “We have Aastha as one of the panelists who from swimming in a pond in Sivasagar became an international-level swimmer. The players with whom she competed have taken training from the best coaches and swam in top-class swimming pools. But she made a mark at the international level by swimming in a local pond because she was driven by an inspiration that encouraged her to follow her dreams despite the limitations. When we talk about the sports ecosystem, it is not only about large infrastructure. But simple things like the well-being of the players, a little appreciation from the coach is the basic Sports Ecosystem.”

“Players like Lovlina Borgohain, Hima Das have emerged and put a mark in the sports sector with the limited resources available for them. It might take time but I feel there are resources available in our state and if we keep the positivity then several players will emerge in the upcoming times,” he added.

On the other hand, speaking on athletes from the Northeast receiving due recognition in the national media, Preeti Dahiya said, “As a national journalist who has been covering sports for the last 20 years, I can tell you that when I started my career in journalism back in 2005-06, there was only one player from the northeast region who got national recognition and that is Mary Kom. She was peaking at that time. But I am glad to acknowledge that in the last 18 years, things have changed to the extent that today India’s Olympic dream is incomplete without the contribution of the athletes in the northeast. This shows the amount of effort that states in this region are putting in their children who are going to become world-class athletes.”

Recalling the time when Mirabai Chanu opened India’s first medal account in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Dahiya said, “I remember that during Tokyo Olympics, when India opened the first medal account with Chanu, a lot of media channels were failing to put the correct state from where she hailed and that is a shame. But the athletes from this region are forcing us to sharpen up our knowledge about from where they hail, their struggles and others.”

“When we go to northeast to report on sportpersons coming from the region, we do find that somewhere when you have that talent, you are forced to leave your state and look for better training outside of training which should be changing in the coming years because in the home these athletes get the environment to groom themselves only then more athletes will emerge from these states. And if so happens, then I will not be surprised that in the coming decades or so, the players from this region dominating the Indian contingent going to Olympics and other international games,” she said on infrastructure.

In the meantime, when asked about the lack of infrastructure that continues to affect aspiring sportspersons, Aastha Choudhury said, “I started my journey of Swimming from a local pond instead of a swimming pool. When I got selected in Delhi, I got to know the basic requirements of sports and infrastructure. But, in the last 4-5 years, players have received better opportunities which is a good thing.”

The conclave is being held for two days on September 23 and 24 and has been organized in the national capital with the view that voices from the Northeast are heard in the power corridors of the nation.

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