The High Court of Delhi on Monday ordered the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) to file an affidavit within three weeks, setting out the selection criteria adopted to pick the Indian team for the third Asian Youth Games to be held in Manama, Bahrain, from October 22 to 31. It also directed that the EFI affidavit should disclose selection criteria for future events as well.
Justice Sachin Datta passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by 15-year-old Show Jumping athlete Vaasvi Khaitan through her father Vedant Khaitan against her exclusion from the list of eight probables named by the EFI Executive Committee ahead of the August 31 deadline for FEI Nominated Entries.
“Given that the names of Indian athletes for participation in the concerned event have already been sent to the International Federation and considering that the deadline for submission of names has expired, it may no longer be possible for the petitioner to participate in the said event,” the High Court held.
During the hearing on September 1, Justice Sachin Datta’s response when the athlete’s counsel said: “I am a rider,” was interesting. “You are not a rider (alone), others are riding on you,” he observed, perhaps in an oblique reference to a section of the EFI aligning itself with the plea of the rider.
Senior counsel Pragyan Sharma and counsel Vinayak Bhandari, appearing for EFI Executive Committee, explained to the Court that the Committee had considered the results of riders between 15 and 17 years of age in the Junior National Championships and other ‘relevant’ competitions and the performance of junior riders in senior events to draw up the long list.
It is not the first time an athlete has moved the High Court of Delhi against the Equestrian Federation of India on selection matters. A clutch of riders had to take legal recourse before the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games when the Equestrian Federation of India changed the selection criteria without following the process laid down in its own constitution.
This time, however, the case is the result of a long-drawn battle within the corridors of EFI. It is an open secret that the EFI Executive Committee, reinstated on May 29, 2024, by an order of the High Court of Delhi, has been at loggerheads with the Secretary-General Col. Jaiveer Singh (retd.).
The Executive Committee maintains that Col. Jaiveer Singh did not share any information about the Asian Youth Games and only an alert from the Indian Olympic Association late in July enabled it to nominate a long list of 11 riders from which it had to select a maximum of eight riders.
The Committee has now pruned that down to eight: Avik Bhatia (on Nathan), Jaiveer Varma (Divine De La Nave), M Krishna Sahithi (Darido), Arun Kumar Harshiyt (Morodcco), Bhoowan (leased horse), Ranbir Singh Dhillon (leased horse), Shubh Chowdhari (Match Me) and Jaiveer Nagra (Kensington) as its nominated entries.
A visit to the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) website suggests that of the eight riders selected, four have not competed in FEI events and two competed last 10 months ago while two have taken part in FEI-listed competitions this year. Vaasvi Khaitan, on the contrary, has had eight starts in FEI events last month.
The EFI Executive also named Avik Bhatia-Con Cornet and Jaivir Singh Nagra-Kriggy as possible reserve combinations. The three athletes who were part of the long list but were excluded when it was time to submit FEI Nominated Entries are Geetika Tikkesetty,, Aradhana Anand and Ved Sama Sarkar.
Some media reports suggested that Col. Jaiveer Singh (retd.) had nominated 19 riders for the Asian Youth Games. It is unclear who selected those riders and if their names were sent to the Indian Olympic Association in July to be forwarded to the Manama Asian Youth Games Organising Committee as part of the long list.
More transparency within EFI and a sharper role in overseeing by the Indian Olympic Association, the Sports Authority of India and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports could have easily helped avoid the situation in which a dozen teenagers have been left overwhelmed by frustration and disappointment after some officials raised their hopes.
It appears that few have learned lessons from the Asian Games fiasco, allowing the Dressage team’s gold medal and Anush Agarwalla’s bronze to paper over the cracks. To be sure, talk of the country’s sporting mindset shifting to being athlete-centric does not hold water as far as Equestrian sport is concerned.
