The Hindu : V. K. Malhotra, Sports Council president

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2002

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V. K. Malhotra, Sports Council president

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 16. The Bharatiya Janata Party's spokesperson, Vijay kumar Malhotra, has been appointed president of the revived All-India Sports Council. The formal announcement was made today by the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Uma Bharti, who said the Prime Minister had decided that the position would have Cabinet rank.

``We are planning to bid for the Olympics and for the Commonwealth games (for 2010),'' Ms. Bharti said. She hoped that the new Council would provide the ''link between the world of sports and the government''. She was confident that she would get full cooperation from Mr. Malhotra.

The new Council will have two vice-presidents and some MPs, from both the Houses, will be its members. The president and all members will have a three-year term.

The Sports Council existed several decades earlier but became defunct after the Sports Authority of India was set up in 1984. But now the need was felt to revive the Council.

Mr. Malhotra has for a long time been associated with sports__ he is vice-president of the Indian Olympic Association, he was chef-de-mission of the Indian contingent to Asian games in 1974 and to the Indian contingent to the Commonwealth Games in 1978, he is president of the Archery Association and has been appointed official observer to Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.

The move is also being seen as an effort to placate Mr. Malhotra, who lost out to Sahib Singh Verma in the race for a Cabinet berth representing Delhi in the recent re-shuffle. With Madan Lal Khurana, another Delhi BJP MP being given presidentship of the State party unit, the BJP is hoping to bring about a semblance of unity in its ranks, with the accommodation of the ''big three'' of Delhi.

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