New Delhi: Losing the bid for the 2014 Asian Games to Incheon was unfortunate but India would get similar opportunities in the future, assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Delhi lost the bid to host the 2014 Asian Games to the Korean city with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Suresh Kalmadi blaming Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar for the setback.
Aiyar had questioned the logic behind hosting events of such magnitude, saying it was of little use to the common man, and that scuttled India's case, Kalmadi alleged.
With both the leaders at loggerheads over the issue, it created an awkward situation for the Congress party and the Prime Minister said though it was "unfortunate" to lose the bid, similar opportunities would definitely come in the future.
"We hosted the Asian Games twice and will be hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games. What we did before can be replicated on a much larger scale," the Prime Minister said here at the inauguration of the Olympic Bhawan in the presence of, among others, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge on Saturday.
In his speech, Singh also stressed on the need to make sports and games a compulsory part of the school and college curricula in a bid to make India a major force in the international arena.
"We should seriously think of making sports and games a compulsory part of the educational syllabus in schools and colleges. Countries that stand out in the world of sports are the ones that have in fact made them an integral part of their educational curricula," Singh said.
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The Prime Minister said that the country needed a collective effort "involving all stakeholders to launch a nationwide movement of youth in sports."
He stressed that greater attention was needed on athletics and gymnastics, apart from mass games like cricket, hockey and football.
"I would like the Indian Olympic Association to work closely with the government, at the Centre and in the states, and unleash a new wave of sports development.
"The advancement of the Olympic Movement should be seen as advancement of the cause of healthy living," Singh said.
Referring to India's lost glory in its national sport, the Prime Minister said the country was yet to fully harness the talent of its youth.
"Our performances in hockey and other disciplines of sports and games have to improve to enable our sportspersons win more Olympic medals," he said.
Without giving any concrete promise with regard to the IOAs appeal for an assistance of Rs 300 crore per year to help Indian athletes win more medals at major international events, Singh, however, assured that his government will do "all that is within our power to realise the untapped potential" of the sportspersons.
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