NEW DELHI: Indian Sports Minister Vijay Goel is back in the news. After being warned by the Rio Olympic organisers about his “aggressive and rude” behaviour and misspelling Dipa Karmakar’s name, Goel is now facing public wrath for confusing athletes Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda.
Goel tweeted his best wishes to Nanda, but with an image of Chand. “Best wishes to #IND #athlete Srabani Nanda, Women’s 200m #JeetoRio #KheloIndia,” he tweeted.
The tweet came just days after another faux pas, where Goel misspelt Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar’s name. Goel had tweeted, “Best of luck to Dipa Karmanakar, Artistic Gymnastic, Women’s vault #KheloIndia #JeetoRio.”
Seperately, the Sports Minister had faced criticism from the organising committee at Rio, with the latter threatening to revoke his accreditation.
“We have had multiple reports of your Minister for Sports trying to enter accredited areas at venues with unaccredited individuals. When the staff try to explain that this is not allowed, they report that the people with the Minister have become aggressive and rude and sometimes push past our staff,” wrote Continental Manager for Rio 2016 Organising Committee Sarah Peterson to the Indian Chef-de-Mission. “As you can understand, this type of behaviour is not acceptable. Despite previous warnings, it would seem that even today the same incident occurred at the Rio Olympic Arena (Gymnastics venue) and Carioca Arena 3,” she added.
Following all of the above, Vijay Goel has been a hot topic on social media, with many users taking to micro blogging site Twitter to express their frustration.
Several users pointed out the error. “That’s Dutee Chand,” said Shiv Aroor.
@Komal_Indian tweeted: “Selfie champion @VijayGoel cudnt recognise @DuteeChand! Calls her Srabani Nanda! And he’s our Sports Minister.”
@Trendulkar tweeted: “Oh now I understand why many Indians landed at 4th spot at Rio. Typo champion Vijay Goel wished all of them - may the fourth be with you.”
Dutee Chand is a professional sprinter who started and finished her 2016 Olympic participation with one heat of the 100-meter. Her time of 11.69 seconds was off her personal best, good enough only for 50th place of the 64 competitors. Srabani Nanda, meanwhile, clocked 23.58 seconds in the 200m Heat 5 to finish sixth in her round and 55th overall.