The Equestrian Federation of India is heading for an oxymoronic situation of being in active inertia after it has left itself with no quorum for any meetings of the present Executive Committee. Its Secretary-General Col. Jaiveer Singh removed elected members, including the Vice President (Technical) Col. Jagat Singh who had been nominated to act as President.
The sole purpose of the exercise seems to be to convince the Delhi High Court, hearing a case from September 2019, to allow the holding of elections. The EFI Secretary-General is desperate to show that that in complying with the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011, EFI has been left without the quorum for the Executive Committee to meet.
Interestingly, apprehending that the members – including Lt Gen PR Venkatesh, Vice President (Vet) and Brig SS Kashyap, Vice President (Sports Development) – would seek relief from the Courts and that they may be granted ex-parte relief, he has also now sought to register a Caveat with the District and Sessions Judge in the Patiala House Courts.
Curiously, before he was removed as Vice President (Technical), Col. Jagat Singh flagged the EFI Secretary-General’s unilateral action to stop four Executive Committee members from holding their positions ostensibly because the new EFI Statutes do not have provision for the positions they were holding and four others because they had completed their four-year terms.
Though Col. Jagat Singh had written to the Delhi High Court-appointed EFI Observer Dr. SY Quraishi to take ‘action deemed fit’, the acting President was in for a rude shock when Col. Jaiveer Singh informed him that he would cease to hold office as per the rules of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for Government Servants.
It did not seem to matter to Col. Jaiveer Singh that the DoPT has not written to Col. Jagat Singh that he was in violation of its order. Nor does it seem to matter to him that he himself may be in violation of a November 13, 2007, order by working full-time for a National Sports Federation without doing any official duty.
Col. Jagat Singh pointed out to the High Court-appointed Observer that the Secretary-General had acted arbitrarily in ‘removing’ eight members of the Executive Committee. “He did not even deem it important to circulate the decision to the remaining members of the Executive Committee, including the nominated Chair,” he pointed out.
“Col. Vikas Thakur (Member – Medication Control & Equine Welfare), Lt. Col. DP Nanda, Mr. Sanjay Gupta and Col. Nanda were removed because ‘new’ Statutes do not provide for their positions. Col. SS Kashyap, Col. Charanjit Sohal, Col. Tarsem Singh and Col. PP Singh were removed as they had completed four years as EC members,” he wrote.
Curiously, Col. Jaiveer Singh has also called up members of the Selection Committee, elected in 2019, suggesting that they put in their papers. They have dug their heels in, refusing to comply with the Secretary-General’s plan to leave the EFI bereft of selectors as well. They have stated that their terms would continue till the Asian Games.
Four selectors Lt. Gen. AJ Singh, Col. Rakesh Nair, Dr. Sushil Balwada and Lt. Col. SL Reddy have refused to play along with the EFI Secretary-General’s desire that they turn in their resignations, too. He has apparently said his calls seeking their resignations had the backing of higher-ups in Sena Bhavan.
Consequently, Col. Jaiveer Singh wrote on July 5 to Col. SL Reddy that he would no longer be a member of the Selection Committee since he was over 70 years of age. Col. Reddy has written to Dr. Quraishi that the National Sports Development Code 2011 does not restrict the age of any sports officials but those of the Presidents, Secretaries and Treasurers of NSFs.
One of the reasons for his wanting to remove the elected Selectors is the fact that Col. Nair headed a panel which is said to have named Col. Jaiveer Singh as one of those responsible for the scandalous bid by EFI to field Indians as Nepal riders in a Tent-Pegging World Cup qualifier. That report is not yet in public domain, though EFI sanctioned the riders themselves.
From the time the Rajasthan State Equestrian Association took EFI to Court for being in violation of the Code, EFI has not been able to hold elections. After the Court preferred not to interrupt the election process which was already in motion, it restrained Lt. Gen. SS Mishra and Lt. Gen. MKS Yadav from acting as interim President and Vice-President respectively.
If this were a show-jumping contest where a horse-rider combination is sanctioned four penalty points and if that pair continued to demolish every jump, the judges on the course would have been forced to ring the bell for disqualification. But then this is not a show-jumping contest but a desperate bid to remain in the saddle.
