A lot of eyebrows have been raised after it became known that the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports would revoke the suspension of the School Games Federation of India (SGFI). It has belied the hopes of those who believed that the Ministry would take the step only after cleaning up the apparent mess within SGFI.
The Ministry told the Delhi High Court in an affidavit that it had decided to revoke the ban on SGFI as a continued suspension would put children across the country to ‘irreparable and irrevocable loss in their sporting and academic careers’. A couple of things emerge from this gesture which comes across as rather large-hearted towards SGFI.
To begin with, a lot of people, not the least being parents of children who have been put through the wringer just to be able to secure an SGFI certificate, will have expected the Ministry to do a bit more than suspend the recognition for a few months only to restore it with a mere rap on the SGFI knuckles.
Indeed, the Ministry suspended SGFI’s recognition on February 25 this year. A week later, SGFI requested the Ministry to revoke the suspension. And, on June 16, the Ministry informed the High Court that it had decided to grant SGFI, Rowing Federation of India and the Indian Golf Union recognition till September 30, to expand the list of recognised NSFs to 57.
The most striking aspect of the affidavit is in the Ministry decision to keep its flagship Khelo India Youth Games below the SGFI Nationals in the pecking order. You would think that a certificate obtained in the Khelo India Youth Games, conducted by the Sports Authority of India, should have greater value than the one secured by taking part in the SGFI National Games.
What is more, the Ministry affidavit ignores the fact that it has identified hundreds of India’s best boys and girls for Khelo India scholarships, ensuring that they are provided financial assistance. Besides, SGFI was suspended only on February 25 this year and there are no National level competitions slated for now because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Worse, the Ministry has decided to overlook the SGFI transgression of having sent a team to take part in an event in Australia where a 15-year-old Delhi girl died in a swimming mishap on the beach. The Ministry appears to have lost a chance to stem the deep rot in SGFI and usher in clean sport by revamping the structure of school sport in the country.
Some National Sports Federations, notably the Archery Association of India and the Gymnastics Federation of India, will have watched the SGFI development with more than cursory interest. They have been on the Ministry’s blacklist for a long time, with the officials in Shastri Bhavan showing no great concern for the value of the certificates issued by these Federations.
Had the officials of the Ministry investigated a bit more, they would have discovered that while the School Games Federation of India Society is registered in Agra, a rather uncannily similar body, School Games Federation Ltd. is registered as company based in Pune. It should arouse curiosity since SGFI Secretary-General Rajesh Mishra is one of the two Directors of the company.
And yes, the other Director is now discredited SGFI Public Relations Officer Gaurav Dixit. As if this were not enough, he is part of an organisation that is called International School Sports Organisation (ISSO). ISSO India is known to have fielded teams in international basketball and football competitions besides, taking part in the SGFI National Games as IBSO.
With no SGFI event due to be held in the near future and with all SGFI certificates issued before February 25, 2020 being legally valid, the hurry to bring SGFI back in the fold with recognition does not augur well for those hoping that corruption would be rooted out from school sport once and for all.
An edited version of this appeared first in Mail Today on June 22, 2020,
