In a country that never ceases to amaze, you could now be in line to witness Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singhji Insaan win the Dronacharya award for his ‘excellent’ contribution to Yoga. He has been nominated by the Yoga Federation of India for this prestigious award, owing to his ‘stupendous’ contribution towards shaping ‘world class yogis’, as claimed by the YFI President.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim has apparently trained Neelam and Karamdeep, both of whom won medals at the World and Asian Cups last year.
The present government has been very keen on developing yoga as a sport in India and thus it was also included into the ‘priority list’ two years back. The decision to do so was then reversed, as there were issues in forming a federation and holding national championships for the same. However, the YFI still claims to be recognised the IOA(as seen on their website).
And the obscurity doesn’t end here. Gurmeet Ram Rahim has also been nominated for the Lifetime achievement award, something that is awarded to two coaches every year, for producing outstanding sportspersons over a period of 20 years.
Ram Rahim’s spokesperson, Dr Aditya Insaan was very upbeat about Ram Rahim’s nomination, as he felt that he has worked ‘tirelessly’ to give India a lot of well rounded sportspersons.
The Shah Satnam Ji Foundation-run schools, colleges and institutions have made it to international podium finishes with only Saint Dr Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan as their mentor and Papa coach,” the spokesperson said.
“Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra, Zaheer Khan, Yusuf Pathan, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Joginder Sharma and countless national level players have played tournaments here. And all of them were extremely happy to be here.” he added.
Gurmeet Ram Rahim has become a celebrity in the past few years. He has starred in 5 movies, and just like his ‘students’, he too has a very well rounded personality, as he directs, acts, sings, designs costumes, choreographs and even does all his stunts on his own. MSG: The Warrior Lion Heart and Jattu Engineer are some of his famous works. And with bollywood already dancing to his tunes, he is hopeful of planning a coup in the Indian sports fraternity as well.
