As the entire country was busy celebrating its cricket team’s triumph in the Asia Cup 2016 for a record 6th time, Tamil Nadu witnessed a shameful incident that has put its Sports Ministry in the spotlight.
Tamil Nadu Sports Minister Dr. S. Sundararaj has recently come into the news for all the wrong reasons during his visit to a school in Pudhukottai. Dr. Sundararaj seemed visibly indignant while interacting with the young hockey players.
In a video that has recently surfaced, the Sports Minister was seen speaking to the players while gesturing at them. In fact, he was also seen to be constantly jogging the memories of the young athletes about the scholarship money that the State Government was paying them.
“You have put on weight, no? We give you Rs. 250 for food every day, and we give college students Rs. 200 a month. You get more than them combined. I will only give money according to the food you eat...” was amongst the many things that was heard from Dr. S. Sundararaj.
In another instance, Sundararaj was seen to ask a student how many medals had she won for the state, to which he himself later added, “Why are we feeding her if she is not winning any medal.”
Also, it was later revealed in the video, that he asked one of the girls while gesturing at her whether she has enough banyans (vests) with her and to another one whether she has physically matured after joining the hostel. While interacting with another young athlete, the accused minister was also heard to be asking the latter whether the earrings that she were wearing made out of real gold or imitated.
Dr. S. Sundararaj, however, repudiated the charges against him as the only defense that he could come up with was that he was only ‘motivating’ the young sportspersons to do better for their state.
