Has the Indian Olympic Association joined hands with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to enforce the National Sports Development Code of India 2011? Has it seen the task of upholding the Code as more important that enforcing its own rules and regulations on its members and associate members?
It would appear that it is true if one goes by the IOA Secretary-General Rajeev Mehta’s reply to the Delhi High Court, citing the reason IOA downgraded Equestrian Federation of India as Associate Member without a vote. Besides, he has also endorsed the Ministry’s new link of thinking that it is wrong to enforce a one size fits all code on the National Sports Federations.
Let us look at the two aspects that emerge from the IOA Secretary-General’s reply to the Delhi High Court, submitted on August 30. And let us take up the reason he attributes to the IOA decision to downgrade EFI to be a non-voting Associate Member.
“It is an admitted fact that the answering respondent (IOA) vide letter dated September 16, 2019 took away the voting rights of the Respondent No. 1 (EFI), with immediate effect, since the respondent No. 1 had violated the Sports Code, and was required to take immediate corrective actions in governance and to duly amend its Constitution in consonance with the IOA and the IOC Charter,” the IOA Secretary-General writes to the Delhi High Court.
Has he forgotten that the decision to downgrade EFI (as well as the Indian Golf Union and the Yachting Association of India) was made by the IOA General Assembly on December 22, 2018 and not by a letter in September 2019? The IOA General Assembly decision was made on account of voting by individual members in the elections of these NSFs.
In fact, this point was reiterated in the letter that the IOA Secretary-General wrote in September 2019 to the then EFI Acting President Lt. Gen. R Gopal, urging EFI not to go ahead with the elections scheduled to be held on September 29 for a few posts. There was no mention of the National Sports Code in that letter.
“The right to vote at any of the NSFs is granted to those associations that have only one sport association in one state for that sport. It implies … it will be ‘One State, one unit and at the national level also it will be one unit (that is NSF) for one sport. In contradiction, the EFI Statutes states that all the members of the EFI (including individuals/clubs/units) have the right to attain AGM meetings and right to vote,” he had written in that letter to EFI.
Let us now turn our attention to the IOA Secretary-General’s endorsement of the Ministry’s decision to air a new line of thinking – one size can’t fit all – that is not part of the National Sports Code as it exists today. Is it the IOA’s lot to be concerned about the Ministry’s thought process or should it be focused on ensuring that its members are in line with its own rules and regulations?
For its member National Sports Federations, it will also be worrying that the IOA Secretary-General has endorsed the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports affidavit in another case in which it says that a one size fits all regulation cannot be applied for such sports. The IOA Secretary-General should have concerned himself with the IOA regulations that are applicable on NSFs.
Curiously, the Indian Olympic Association has also interpreted the Delhi High Court order of February 7 – “The Court further directs that both the IOA and the MYAS will, hereafter, while seeking to take any decision in relation to NSFs, inform the Court in advance” – as an order that bars IOA from making any decision on a National Sports Federation.
It would appear that the IOA Secretary-General, who warned EFI of further action if it proceeded with the September 29 elections has now been appeased by a recent letter from the EFI Secretary-General Col. Jaiveer Singh requesting IOA to give EFI some more time to bring in the changes in a time-bound manner saying structural changes take time.
It has not dawned on the IOA Secretary-General that EFI has done little to address the concerns that the IOA general assembly raised when downgrading it as an Associate Member. It has been a year and three-quarters since that day and all EFI has done is keep saying that it runs a peculiar sport – peculiar because it needs two athletes, a human and a horse – to delay the changes.
It should be the easiest of things for both the Ministry and the Indian Olympic Association to rebut that argument. With due respect to the beautiful creatures that these horses are, even a simple reading of the National Sports Code will show that the Ministry considers them to be equipment and not athletes.
Just for the sake of argument, can the Athletics Federation of India or the Swimming Federation of India say that since many of their State Associations are unable to find relay squads, they run peculiar sports? Or can the Rowing Federation of India claim that since not all States have enough athletes to be able to field Fours, it runs a peculiar sport?
The IOA Secretary-General who was breathing fire and brimstone a year ago, threatening further action if EFI went ahead with its election, has appeared to accept the EFI suggesting that it would make the changes in a time-bound manner. It has not occurred to him to ask the EFI to specify the timeframe, particularly since the EFI has been known to buy time and do little work on ground.
It is the oldest trick in EFI’s book: to say that it would come up with a timebound plan for integration of the State Association and gets its pursuers to call of the chase. Back in 2017, it even claimed that it had submitted to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports a roadmap for integration of state associations and amending its Statutes.
It remains to be seen if the Court’s attention is drawn to the IOA Secretary-General’s prayer that the EFI must be bound to make the necessary constitutional amendments and changes in governance and implement them. Ironically, the prayer also suggests that EFI be allowed an interim measure until the changes are made and implemented. In other words, status quo.
The IOA and the MYAS have their favorites. The lesser known sports suffer and are forced to accept the National sports code. The Olympic and Asian sports Federations do no get the required number of medals for India, where as the lesser known sports get World Championship medals , yet are given step motherly treatment. THE NSDC 2011 should be applicable to all NSF what ever be their nature of sport, as the administration and governance are the same.