Page 41 - Mann ki Baat June 2022 - English

Who can forget his message on the first to call them and tell them
social media to Bhawani Devi, that the country was with them –
India's first participant in fencing they may have lost the game but
in the Olympic Games? She lost they had won a billion hearts with
the competition in the second their courage and determination
round, but the Prime Minister on the field.
reached out to her, just to tell her
After India’s athletes returned
that he and the entire country
home from the Tokyo Olympics,
were proud of her achievement.
It was this message that made Tokyo Paralympics, Deaflympics
the entire country back her for and the Thomas Cup, he met
her achievement of representing them all, irrespective of whether
India as the first fencer in the they had won a medal or not.
Olympics. It is this constant motivation
to all sportspersons and the
It was the same for the women's
assurance that the Government
hockey team which finished fourth
in Tokyo 2020, a spectacular is committed to taking all possible
achievement of pulling India’s measures to ensure that athletes
th
position up from being 12 (last) have all that they need to excel,
in the Rio Olympics by missing a which is turning India into a
medal this time by a whisker. The country where sport is becoming
athletes were heartbroken, but it a way of life. Khelo India is now a
was the Prime Minister who was lived experience.

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