If National Sports Federations, reeling under the sudden loss of Government recognition en masse, expected the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to provide leadership and find a way past the crisis, they have been left disappointed as well as scratching their heads in wonder about how and when the impasse would end.
“I would have responded if Parliament was in session. If I speak outside Parliament, people will say that I am challenging the authority of the court,” Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Kiren Rijiju told representatives of some NSFs in a webinar held recently, not wanting to stir up further controversy a day before the Ministry filed a fresh application before the Delhi High Court.
“We had decided to relax the norms (for annual recognition) in the times of COVID-19, keeping everyone’s welfare in mind. We granted recognition when the new Secretary, Sports, took charge. Irrespective of the Court’s decision, we will not let the athletes suffer or the work of the NSFs be affected. We are committed to ensuring that,” he said.
“When I took charge of the Ministry, I said that Government should not be running sports in the country. That is the task of organisations like IOA and NSFs. Government’s job would be to plan and facilitate. We were moving in that direction but because of the pandemic, some of the work has been affected,” he told the officials, most of whom were from NSFs of non-Olympic sport.
NSF officials, who had read the Minister’s firm stand in December when the Court decided to stay the formation of a committee to review the Draft Sports Code 2017. “The Court will not decide what the Code should look like. We were bound to tell the Court that India’s sports policy will be framed by Government and not the Court,” the Minister had been quoted as saying.
The fact that elite athletes are being directly communicated with by the Sports Authority of India and news that the Ministry will launch TOP Scheme for athletes between 10 and 12 years of age with the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games in mind – where it believes India will finish in the top-10 – have all raised doubts in the minds of NSFs if they would be marginalised even more.
For years, various Ministers of Youth Affairs and Sports like Sunil Dutt, Mani Shankar Aiyar, MS Gill and Ajay Maken have sought to rein in National Sports Federations. The Ministers were supported in their effort by Secretaries, Sport, like Ms. Sindhushree Khullar, Injeti Srinivas, Rahul Bhatnagar and Radhey Shyam Julaniya, each of whom was seen by the NSFs as a hard taskmaster.
But now, in what is an unprecedented situation, a combination of a dithering Ministry and a firm Delhi High Court has left the NSFs, without exception, in a limbo, without annual recognition. The task of granting annual recognition is usually completed in the first month of the year but not this time. And the mess could have been avoided has the Ministry granted recognition in time.
This article first appeared in Mail Today on July 10, 2020
