Govt to review its portal article on hockey as national game

The step comes after discrepancy in the article and the government's position were made clear in an RTI reply by the Sports Ministry recently.

The Sports Ministry in an RTI reply had said that it has not declared any sport as national game whereas the web portal of the government 'www.India.Gov.In' has posted an article glorifying hockey under the heading National Game.

After the discrepancy was reported, the website has added "content under review" next to the heading in the article, indicating that the apparent status could be reviewed.

The website, which is the official portal of the Government, is designed, developed and hosted by the National Informatics Centre under the Ministry of Information Technology.

"The content in this portal is the result of a collaborative effort of various Indian Government Ministries and Departments, at the Central/State/District level," the portal says.

Lucknow-based Aishwarya Parashar, a 10-year-old student, had filed an RTI seeking certified copies of orders related to declaration of the National anthem, song, sport, animal, bird, flower and symbol from the Prime Minister's Office.

The Sports Ministry said in the reply that the Ministry has not declared any sport or game to be the National Game.

Surprisingly, the government portal under the head National symbol has given details of 14 such symbols which include - Flag, Bird, Flower, Tree, Anthem, River, Aquatic Animal, State Emblem, Calender, Animal, Song, Fruit, Game, Currency Symbol.