Sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore says sportsmen must be treated as most important person

Colonel Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who shot to fame by bagging silver medal in shooting in Athens Olympics, elevated as new sports minister on Sunday. He was earlier serving as minister of state for information & broadcasting.

After being appointed as sports minister, Rathore expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for reposing faith in him and giving very important ministry.

“Appeal to all sports federations, let us keep sportsmen as most important person, everything else will fall into place later,” said Rathore.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore takes over from the pro-active Vijay Goel following a major cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Colonel Rathore first stepped in a shooting range in the mid 1990s and some years later, he became India’s first ever individual silver medal winner at the Olympic Games. He stood on the podium after finishing second in the men’s double trap at the 2004 Athens Games.

A second-generation army officer, Rathore is attached to the Jaipur-based 9 Grenadiers. His father, Colonel (retd) Lakshman Singh Rathore, once commanded it.

After taking premature retirement from the Indian army, Rathore joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2013 and was sworn in as minister of state for information & broadcasting when the Modi government came to power in May, 2014.

Abhinav Bindra, who had bettered Rathore’s Olympic feat with a first ever gold medal in 10m air rifle at Beijing Games, congratulated the minister.

“Delighted to see @Ra_THORe is the new sports minister. All the very very best!,” Bindra wrote in his twitter handle.

With PTI inputs