Minister’s stand irks Kalaripayattu masters

Who is the latest enemy in the list of Sports Minister K B Ganesh Kumar? It might sound a tricky question, but following the announcement made by the Minister regarding the revamping of rules for obtaining jobs under the sports quota, it is the Kalaripayattu masters who are an irritated lot.

They allege that the move to exclude  Kalaripayattu practitioners from getting jobs under sports quota, on the basis of Kalaripayattu being a non-Olympic event, will spell doom for the traditional martial art.

The apprehension of the Kalaripayattu masters comes close on the heels of the comment made by the Minister that events that are not part of the Olympics and Asian Games will be left out of the list of disciplines which are entitled to a government job under sports quota.

 The Minister had told , before his departure to London to watch the Olympics, that sports quota will be reserved for those events that are part of the Olympics schedule. ”How can we give away government jobs, which are reserved for national and international winners of recognised events, to Kalaripayattu practitioners? All such events which have nothing to do with Olympics or Asian Games will be shunted out by changing the rules,” he had said.

 It is these comments made by the Minister that have provoked the office-bearers of the Kalaripayattu Association. ”He (the Minister) has spoken at a couple of occasions regarding his intention to remove events such as Kalaripayattu from the list of disciplines to which the quota is applicable. It is a bad decision to omit Kalaripayattu from the list as that will account to a 50-per cent destruction of the traditional martial art. Now, most of the learners of Kalari are youths who are primarily lured by the scope of getting quota-based government jobs. If the Minister decides to enact his intention, then we have no doubt that Kalaripayattu will receive a severe setback,” said Poonthura Soman, secretary of the Kerala State Kalaripayattu Association.



 The association further said that the proposed move would send a wrong message to the world about Kalaripayattu. “The announcement has come at a time when we are trying to get recognition from SAI. The move of the Minister accounts to disregarding a martial art that is part of the culture and social life of the State. We appeal to him to change his attitude towards Kalaripayattu,” Soman added.