Olympian Sreejesh insulted; returns home with family after Kerala govt cans felicitation last minute

Thiruvananthapuram: In a shocking development, Olympic medal winner P R Sreejesh had to return from Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram after organisers of an official Kerala government reception for him postponed the event in the last minute. The Hockey legend was accompanied by his family.

Sreejesh and his family had come to Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday from Kannur to attend his felicitation ceremony, which was to happen on Monday. On Saturday night, officials decided to postpone the program. However, they failed to inform Sreejesh about it. He only learned about the postponement upon his arrival in the capital city. After the development, the Olympian decided to return home with his family.

When contacted, Sreejesh told Mathrubhumi: "I am not going to respond to this situation right now."

Meanwhile, blame game is underway within the Pinarayi Vijayan government over the fiasco.

According to Education Minister V Sivankutty, since Sreejesh is a Joint Director in the Education Department, it is the department's responsibility to organise a felicitation for the hockey player. Initially, the Minister had announced that the felicitation would be held on Saturday before the event was called off.

At the same time, Sports Minister V Abdurahiman maintained that the state Sports Department is primarily responsible for honouring the Olympic medal winner. Due to this disagreement, the Chief Minister’s office reportedly intervened and decided to postpone the event.

Earlier, it was also planned to offer jobs to Asian Games medal winners in the Education Department as part of the event. Originally scheduled for August 24, the event was later moved to August 26 and eventually postponed.

Opposition leader VD Satheesan alleged that “Sreejesh was insulted due to the ego tussle between the ministers.” The Congress leader asserted that the Chief Minister owes an apology to the Olympic medal winner.