Appeal to Indian Philatelists : campaign for the issue of commemorative stamps on Olympics 2012 !!

COMMEMORATING LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC

- Naresh Agarwal

I recently read an appeal in Rainbow stamp club bulletin asking to start campaigning for issuance of postal stamps by India Post on occasion of London Olympics, the biggest sport event held every four years to see the best sport personalities of the world in action. The appeal reads as under :

“It is unfortunate that India Post has not yet announced stamps to commemorate London 2012 Olympics. The philatelic community is still in doubt whether any stamp will be issued by India Post to mark this biggest sports event. So all Indian philatelists are requested to join hands and make all possible efforts to pursue India Post for a beautiful set of stamps to mark OLYMPICS 2012. WE all must start a campaign for the issue of commemorative stamps on Olympics 2012 !!”

Participation by any nation in such a great sports event is a matter of pride and honor. Further winning any medal in this event is like a dream come true. For me even participation in Olympic gives you a title of Olympian which is a very big and rich achievement.

We have seen postal authorities of most of the countries are issuing postal stamps to celebrate on this occasion. Australia for example is issuing three commemorative stamps titling “The Road to London” to honor its Olympians and also will be issuing stamps instantly for their Gold medal winners in London Olympics. Such is the enthusiasm. Israel has planned to issue a set of 6 stamps. This shows how seriously and strongly one is connected and concerned. This connectivity acts as a motivational stuff for the participants and also for the new upcoming athletes and sports persons.

India has also been issuing stamps on many such occasion. This act of India Post has been highly appreciated by the philatelic fraternity world over and the stamps and other postal stuffs issued / released have made an impact. Many big sports persons have been honored.

Though only a few days are left, India Post has not yet declared the stamps to be issued on this occasion by it but it is believed that very nice stamps have already been designed to honor the medal winners of India in the past Olympics games. But it is not understood why such games are being played by India Post before the official start of the Olympic games. This is a serious matter and demand of the people of this state who look forward for release of good postal material including postal stamps to mark, celebrate and commemorate this event.

One must not forget that India Post has been very kind and liberal in its stamp issue policy where even a very good number of people and events of regional stature have been honored and commemorated. Olympics has a global stature and one can think what India Post must have in its store for this event. Otherwise also when whole world is doing great work to mark the event… India post, one of the biggest postal organizations can never sit behind and is expected to come out with some wonderful postal material.

In case India Post has not yet thought of this, it must act immediately to keep its and our head high. It must think that this is the right time to honor our athletes and Olympians in front of the world as stamps are considered as ambassador of any country. More over, we will be honoring our sports personalities not the British or other nationals.

Let me remind the think tank of India post that it has a big wing to promote philately and also has a philatelic advisory committee too to think on the importance of any such occasion and to decide on issuance of stamps and postal material which could commemorate such event and also help promotion and development of this hobby for which such wing has been formed. I would like to inform that there is a big group / chapter of philatelists who collect and enjoy the Olympic related stamps and other material. In India, only there is a big team of such philatelists who are hard core Olympic Stamp collectors.

I hope and have firm belief that India Post will come out with a strange but beautiful set of stamps to mark this occasion along with other related philatelic materials.