Children in school learn that hockey is the national game of India. It is also there in any book of general knowledge. Even in competitive examinations, an aspirant is expected to know that hockey is our national game. But now the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has replied to an RTI query that India has not notified any national game as such. Ten-year-old Aishwarya Parashar had asked the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) when the government of India had notified hockey as a national game. But SPS Tomar, Under Secretary, Union Ministry of Youth Affairs has replied that there was no such record available in his archive. "I haven't come across any official order or notification in the ministry saying that hockey is our national game. It is known to be a national game in general parlance," Tomar has stated. "I had asked the government when hockey was notified as national game. The question assumes significance in the backdrop of the fact that we have been learning since Class I that hockey is our national game. We attach this game with our nationalism and take pride in the fact that Indian hockey team has been the most successful in the history of Olympics. We have won eight gold, one silver and two bronze medals in Olympics in past," Aishwarya said. "Interestingly, the government of India website calls hockey our national game but as per the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs, India has no national game as such," she said. Previously, Aishwarya, a Class VI student, had also brought to the knowledge of the people that Mahatma Gandhi was never identified by the Government of India as Father of the Nation. In reply to her RTI query to the PMO in March this year, she was informed that as per the public records in the National Archives of India, there was no specific document to support the popular claim that the government had bestowed on Gandhi the honour of Father of the Nation.
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