Some episodes featuring the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) may have ended or be poised for a finish, but dark clouds will hover for a bit longer unless elections are held at the earliest. The athletes are now uncertain about who would oversee the Asian Games selection since the EFI has not left itself with a selection committee mandated by its own constitution.
Since the EFI is a rare National Sports Federation which elects the Selection Committee that picks athletes and the National Coach and since the Secretary-General Col. Jaiveer Singh arbitrarily decide to remove the elected selectors last year on ‘completion’ of their term, it has become necessary to have the elections at the earliest.
Curiously, Col. Jaiveer Singh’s decision can be challenged since the EFI Statutes specify that the tenure of the selectors will be four years must be co-terminus with the Asian Games. “The term will terminate in the AGM succeeding the Asian Games,” the Statute guarantees. Since the Asian Games has been delayed by a year, the selectors could have continued till the event in 2023.
It appears that the Delhi High Court will resolve the impasse and sort the EFI electoral college muddle. However, you can expect the party at the receiving end of that judgement to throw a spanner in the works and delaying the elections to the EFI Executive Committee and Selection Committee by going on appeal before a division bench of the Court.
Ministry could have resolved impasse with a firm hand
Things would not have come to such a pass if the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had called for details of clubs registered as voting members of the Equestrian Federation of India before considering the EFI appeal to grant it exemptions from certain key clauses of the National Sports Development Code of India 2011.
What would the Ministry have possibly found? To begin with, it may have discovered that the EFI claims of it being a club-based sport is not rooted in reality. It would have found that barring Army units like the 61 Cavalry, most ‘clubs’ with base in Army stations across the country and empowered to vote in EFI elections do not take part in Equestrian sport.
It may have discovered that most ‘clubs’ on the electoral college are neither registered as societies not have PAN Cards or bank accounts. And if it had asked for details of elections of each of these ‘clubs’, with the names of the Presidents, Secretaries-General and Treasurers, it would have received precious little data.
It would also have found that EFI has used a provision to grant organisations like the Service Sports Control Board and All India Police Sports Control Board membership to admit a number of organisations such membership. Thus Army Services Corps and the Remount and Veterinary Corps Centre and College get a different status to 61 Cavalry, which is deemed as a club.
It would have given itself a chance to find out that the sport is very popular in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Even a cursory look at the list of clubs with a vote in the EFI elections will reveal that West Bengal is home to nearly three dozen of these, Uttar Pradesh to nearly two dozen and Jammu and Kashmir to as many as 17 of clubs.
Animal Transport companies, Hospitals, Stud Farms, Schools empowered to vote?
And yes, it would have found that as many as 13 animal transport companies or battalions, 10 Sainik Schools, six veterinary hospitals including four in Jammu and Kashmir and 1 each in Assam and Uttar Pradesh; two Remount Training Schools and Depots, and two Equine Stud farms and two breeders associations are among the ‘clubs’ listed as voting members of EFI.
From January 2013, the Ministry was repeatedly asking the EFI to comply with the National Sports Development Code or India 2011. The Ministry issued EFI similar directives twice in 2017, causing EFI to submit that it was preparing a roadmap for full compliance in four years. The Ministry set August 3, 2019 as the deadline to fall in line. A defiant EFI held it elections in November 2019.
In November 2021, the Ministry gave up its insistence on EFI following the Code and allowed exemptions from complying with some key clauses of the National Sports Development Code of India 2011. It no longer required EFI to have affiliated units in two-thirds of the States and Union Territories and also allowed EFI to confer voting rights to clubs, individuals and institutions.
It would have been the easiest of things for the Ministry to use the parameters it employed in making the Indian Golf Union embrace the Sports Code. As early as in 2013, a similar issue surfaced in the Indian Golf Union and the Ministry directed the IGU to treat golf clubs as districts and get them affiliated to the State Golf Associations which would form the IGU electoral college.
This is one serial that must draw to a close soon if the sport is to find its wings and take off.
