We may be assuming Hockey, the game which fetched six consecutive Olympic gold medals, to be our national game but the fact is none of the games or sports played in the country has the status of “national game”.
In an RTI reply, the Sports Ministry has made it clear that it has not declared any sports as National Game whereas the web portal of Government ‘www.india.gov.in’ has posted an article glorifying field hockey under the heading National Game.
The curiosity about national symbols drove Lucknow-based 10-year-old Aishwarya Parashar to file an RTI application to the Prime Minister’s Office seeking certified copies of orders related to declaration of National anthem, song, sport, animal, bird, flower and symbol.
Her queries were transferred to the Home Ministry which forwarded the query related to National Sport to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
In a reply, Sports Ministry Under-Secretary, Shiv Pratap Singh Tomar wrote in Hindi to Aishwarya Parashar that the Ministry has not declared any sport or game to be the National Game.
Surprisingly, the government portal, under the head National Symbol has given details of 14 such symbols which include - flag, bird, flower, tree, Anthem, River, Aquatic Animal, State Emblem, Calendar, Animal, Song, Fruit, Game, Currency Symbol.
The portal says, “Indians of all demographics backgrounds across the world are proud of these National Symbols as they infuse a sense of pride and patriotism in every Indian’s heart.”