In a classic case of closing the stable doors after the horses have bolted, Equestrian Federation of India executive committee has formed a five-member panel to inquire into the embarrassment caused to the nation by five Indian riders representing the Nepal team in the International Tent-Pegging Federation World Cup qualifiers in Greater Noida last month.
Thus far, there has been not even a hint of a public apology forthcoming from EFI for its role in the unsavory episode. At its thinly-attended meeting on March 31, the Executive Committee entrusted the task of filing a FIR to Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It is a mystery why the Secretary-General Col. Jaiveer Singh, authorised to sign all legal documents, did not take that task upon himself.
Col. Satya Solanki, Col. JS Mann, Col. Rakesh Nair, Kevic Setalvad and Naresh Tehlan have been charged with the task of getting to the bottom of it all. Interestingly, the panel does not include either of the two EFI Vice-Presidents, Lt. Gen. PR Venkatesh or Harish Khokhar. Most National Federations would have one such official chairing a panel like this.
The panel, which has until April 15 to submit its report, will primarily consider four questions. It will look into whether the nationality of the riders representing Nepal was checked at all and if the communication said to have been received by EFI from the participating Nations was authentic.
Besides, it will identify the person/s responsible for making Indians participate on behalf of Nepal and if adequate procedures were followed to obtain necessary clearances from Ministries of Youth Affairs and Sports, External Affairs and Home Affairs before the conduct of the event in the Gautam Buddha University campus in Greater Noida.
When the event was announced on February 24, 2021, EFI and Equiwings said Bahrain, Belarus, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan and United States of America would compete with India for two World Cup slots. A couple of days later, at the EFI Executive Committee, Col. Jaiveer Singh said five countries – Belarus, India, Qatar, Pakistan and United States of America – would take part.
It transpired that Bahrain, Qatar, Russia and Sudan did not compete. The panel would do well to inquire if teams from these nations had made any real move to come to India. It must call for the complete documentation between the International Tent Pegging Federation and EFI as well as between the competing nations and EFI.
It must also be verified whose decision it was to bring Equiwings as a partner for the World Cup qualifier since the executive committee meeting on February 26 had been informed that Equiwings would conduct the National Championship from March 1 to 7.
Laudably, Col. Tarsem Singh Warraich, EC Member (Tent-Pegging) has been kept out of the panel. For, by all accounts, he was in the liaison between EFI and Equiwings, which conducted the ITPF World Cup 2023 qualifiers as EFI partners.
There cannot be any denying that top EFI officials would have known that the riders, not the least one answering to the name of Yogendra Yadav, purportedly representing Nepal were all Indians. Even if he did not know the others, EFI Secretary-General Col. Jaiveer Singh would have recognised Yogendra Yadav as being from Bihar.
Hopefully, the panel will question everyone concerned from EFI and Equiwings as also the riders who ‘represented’ Nepal and come up with a set of recommendations that will go some distance in restoring the dignity of sport. At the moment, it can only be hoped that EFI’s blunder will not make the International Equestrian Federation invoke stringent action.
