Sprinter Dutee Chand has courted controversy over her now-deleted Facebook post wherein she lashed out at the State government for its alleged love for Hockey.
In her post in Odia language, Chand said that the State government is busy developing sports infrastructure spending by crores of rupees. However, on the other hand, it is neglecting sportspersons.
In her veiled attack on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, she said, in her post, that ‘he’ was dancing around with the Hockey India Team, without considering the fate of other sports. “There is crores of money for Hockey India team but nothing for athletes,” she said.
Though she deleted the post sometime after uploading, it stirred up a controversy by then.
Former captain of India Hockey team Dilip Tirkey took strong exceptions to Dutee’s post.
On his twitter handle, Olympian Tirkey embedded a snapshot of Dutee’s post, and said, “As a sports person I strongly condemn this kind of statement from another sportsman who herself belongs to Odisha. Odisha Government has always given importance to all sports be it Hockey or be it athletics.”