Dear Signers,
This week was so heartening for me. The South First reported on my story. The reporter also reached out to the Kerala Sports Minister V. Abdurahiman, who replied that the state doesn’t have a policy of rewarding para athletes. This was before I met Dr. Shashi Tharoor.
Click on this link to share this petition over WhatsApp with your friends and family. https://cutt.ly/lBY2YeV. We need a lot more signatures, at least 20,000, to make an impact and help Salih get a government job through the sports quota. Click on this link to share this petition on Twitter.
I had been trying to meet Member of Parliament (MP) from Thiruvananthapuram Dr. Shashi Tharoor for some time. He’s the only politician who I was acquainted with, as he had felicitated me back in 2015 at an event organised by Young Indians. I wrote to him asking for a meeting, hoping that he’d hear my case and help me reach out to the Kerala sports authorities. Dr. Tharoor politely obliged and met me at his office in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
There were more than 60 people waiting to see him, but he patiently heard my story and has agreed to help me take my demand to the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. After this meeting, I’m filled with so much hope and optimism about the future of my campaign. I told Dr. Tharoor that my teammates at the 2018 Para Asian Games, fellow blind chess players from Odisha and Tamil Nadu, had received support from their respective state governments. However, the Kerala government hasn’t provided me with the same support. Moreover, the government has made no effort to recognise my achievements and help me in my preparation for future tournaments.
I hope a positive intervention in my case could set a precedent for other para athletes in my state, who also need support from the state government to sustain their families and continue pursuing their professional sporting ambitions.
While I'm grateful to all the people who've signed my petition so far, I just wish more journalists were willing to interview me and profile my achievements. I wish an able-bodied Indian chess champion -- we have so many of them -- would respond to my requests of an online chess match, so I could showcase my skills on a bigger stage. I wish someone from the Indian chess fraternity would help me grow my campaign.
Please continue sharing this petition within your social circles. Help my story reach far and wide, so that the Kerala state government cannot ignore my demand anymore.
Click on this link to share this petition over WhatsApp with your friends and family. https://cutt.ly/lBY2YeV. We need a lot more signatures, at least 20,000, to make an impact and help Salih get a government job through the sports quota. Click on this link to share this petition on Twitter.
-- Mohammed Salih.