Gill made an impression as Sports Minister

New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) For Manohar Singh Gill, elevation as a Cabinet Minister is a recognition of his special effort to tone up within just one year the Sports Ministry which seemed to be directionless earlier.
It was a late entry in the Union Cabinet in the previous government for the former Chief Election Commissioner in April last year when he replaced Mani Shankar Aiyar.

But the 72-year-old made his presence felt by taking hard position on various aspects, including ending the long-standing controversial reign of K P S Gill as Indian Hockey Federation President in the wake of a double whammy of the national team’s failure to qualify for Beijing Olympics and the bribery scandal involving IHF secretary Jothikumaran.

The Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab won the faith of sports fraternity by putting the hockey house in order by making the Indian Olympic Association in charge of it.

Gill next openly articulated the hard stance of disfavouring sending of cricket tour of Pakistan in the aftermath of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

He made it mandatory for sportspersons to receive honours like Padma awards in person after Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh skipped the prestigious ceremony this year. PTI