Should Indian government spend more money on sports so that we do better in London Olympics?

What I am against is the “race”. Suppose Indian government starts spending more on sports. If they come to know that USA has the best coaches, should they send players to US? Is it even fair to get coached in a foreign country and then play for your own country(founders of Olympics forgot to put in that rule)? If they figure out that the players in other countries take some expensive vitamin tablets which are not yet included in “doping”, should they provide them as well? If they figure out, some countries pick children at 3 years of age and convert them to a swimmer/gymnast, should they do that? Should they spend money to make sure that a boxer with 14 stitches plays a match that could fetch him a bronze medal(one of our boxers did that), should they also make our players “stronger“ like other countries by feeding them all kinds of stuff, should they also buy them the best-est equipments  to improve their race times, etc. Where do they stop? Not until they win the “race”? I am not saying that we shouldn’t even participate. We should but should not go to the extremes. What if there is an Olympics on action movies, should government start spending on movies? What if there is an Olympics on fire crackers, should government step in there as well? Trust me, we will never have Olympics for meaningful reasons.

I believe what the government is already doing is enough – sports quota in education/job, cash awards & promotions to people who do well, maintaining parks, etc. Sports is one place where I think Indian government has taken the right stance knowingly or unknowingly.

When India started creating lot more engineering colleges, it was not because we wanted to beat China or USA. We felt the need. Same way, we should spend money on sports only if we feel the need. Do we believe that people don’t exercise enough which causes medical issues? Do we believe that Yoga is not the solution and sports will be, because it is more fun? Money should be spent not because we want to win the “race” but because we want to run.

India has an abysmally low number of doctors, shouldn’t we spend more money on creating doctors than sportsmen? I am sorry to say but you will never see Olympics for doctors. You will never see Olympics for engineers from all the countries in the world, all engineers are given the same problem and let’s see who solves it the best way in the fastest time. You will never see Olympics for schools/hospitals whose productivity is maximum. I know you could argue that all of this happens at various levels but it is never at the level of summer Olympics.

If you wish to promote sports for the right reasons such as it teaches you, in a fun way, about competition, team work, individual excellence, leadership, winning & losing, etc.; I am all for it. But do you really believe that “sports” is taught anywhere so holistically? I know you could argue the same for medicine. Doctors are not as clean as one would like them to be. And that is why Indian government is doing things like they have to serve for one year in internship, one year in rural India, MD/MS is also almost like free service, etc. So, they do end up serving the country for 4-5 years even if they don’t do so later.

If you say that we need to understand that sportsmen are as professional as engineers or doctors, if you are say that a tennis coach should be as respected as a teacher, if you are saying that a parent should save money or take loans for a child’s sports education as they do for their academic education, if you are saying that parents need to treat sports as important as a subject like physics, chemistry, etc and celebrate their child’s excellence in that subject, then I am with you. But I believe it is more of a mindset change and doesn’t need government intervention.

I certainly believe that government could do awareness campaign for sports education and even come up with ways to reward schools which give emphasis on sports. Army schools have lot of emphasis on sports. Other schools could learn from them. But it will not result in medals in Olympics.

I still remember few years back when India didn't get a single medal in Olympics, people were questioning the logic of spending even a few rupees on sports. And it was because it hurt their ego. We should not spend money on sports if it doesn't generate results. And today because we have got couple of medals, out of which one was won by a super-rich guy, we are thinking that if we spend more, we will get more medals and we will do better in the "race" and feel more "proud" of our country.

How many people, who were not in sports, have chosen to run a non-profit which promotes sports? I can't think of any. But I can point you to hundreds of people from diverse fields who have chosen to work for education, children, clothing, poverty and many such issues. If you look around, you will find thousands of people volunteering for those organizations. If they didn't say that it is government's duty to take care of basic human needs, there should be at least few people who would say that we will take care of sports.

Not many people see current form of “sports” as a healthy way to keep fit. We have thousands of volunteers teaching Yoga for free at several places in the world. Why is it that no one is pursuing “sports” as a cause? I tend to agree with the wisdom of the crowds that it is not that important and there are other cheaper/better ways to achieve the same goal.

If no one has found this issue compelling enough till date, if you are not volunteering for an organization which promotes sports, how come it became a big issue all of a sudden? Just because this is the week of Olympics and we are not doing well in the "race" and it hurts our ego?

If I am right, we all will take the right decision(as we have till date) and our enthusiasm will die in a month or so. If I am wrong, I will see people volunteering to start/support non-profits which work in the "sports" field. And some of us, instead of sponsoring a child's academic education, will sponsor his/her sports education. I would also expect people(common man not someone who is filthy rich) to donate tons of money to LN Mittal Global Foundation because it also works on sports-related issues.

I would request you to take a deep breath, put your ego aside and close your eyes. Imagine you are in a poor village(which is 70% of India) and ask the people out there - Would you like a sports academy instead of a school or a hospital? Your inner self will give you the right answer.