By reinstating the entire Executive Committee of the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) as an interim measure, the Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora has shown sensitivity to international sport’s regulations and an acute awareness of the situation in the beleaguered Federation.
Significantly, in directing that the entire Executive Committee as of November 2019 be reinstated, the Division Bench has not condoned any action that led to Single Judge ruling that placed the governance of EFI in the hands of a three-member Ad Hoc Administrators Committee to take over EFI.
Perhaps, the Division Bench was also showing it can be flexible when adjudicating the enforcement of the provisions of the National Sports Development Code of India 2011 and balancing it against the likelihood of the body running a sport in India being derecognised by its International Sports Federation.
The moot questions now are: How many of the reinstated EFI Executive Committee will want to be back in the beleaguered organisation and if the reinstated EFI Executive Committee will meet before the Olympic Games? For a little more than two years, EFI has run without a single meeting of its Executive Committee and decisions have been made by two, if not one, person.
While we delve further into what might or might not happen as far as the reinstated EFI Executive Committee is concerned, it will only be right for us to take some moments considering what could have happened if there the elected Executive committee and Selection Committee were in place without being displaced for some reason or the other?
For sure, it is possible that the Inquiry Committee Report into impersonation by Indian riders as members of Nepal tent pegging team in the ITPF World Cup qualifiers in Greater Noida would have surfaced and caused discomfort and embarrassment to the EFI leadership which was present at the venue when this happened.
The panel is said to have found that EFI had not Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to monitor, supervise and conduct international or national events. It found that the EFI Executive Committee had not been assigned any role in the Federation’s functioning. It suggested that loopholes in the EFI Statutes needed to be identified and plugged.
Interestingly, it was appalled that Col. Jaiveer Singh and Lt. Col. MM Rahman’s nomination to the Appeals Committee of the World Cup Qualifier was inappropriate as neither had the credentials as judges, officials, coaches or in any other capacity related to the discipline to be on the Appeals Committee. They had been nominated by the Organising Committee.
It is being said in Equestrian circles that the EFI Executive Committee and the Selection Committee were most likely disbanded because of the report that indicted the EFI office-bearers and not the athletes. In what was seen as travesty, the EFI Executive Committee banned the four riders and suggested counselling for the officials.
The report of the Inquiry Committee has not been made public so far under some pretext or the other. Perhaps the reinstated Executive Committee will correct some wrongs and let the Equestrian community know all that the panel had found and recommended. It will be of interest to see the Inquiry Committee’s methods and findings.
More importantly, the alterations to the 2022 Asian Games selection criteria would have been minimal, taking into account the postponement because of the Covid-19 pandemic. It may be recalled that the changes were made by neither the Selection Committee nor the Executive Committee and led to a spate of Court cases as well as the retirement of a young rider.
Had a Selection Committee and an Executive Committee been in place, 2018 double silver medal winner Fouaad Mirza may have been part of the eventing squad in Hangzhou. He did not try qualifying for the team because the EFI ‘leadership’ had chosen to close qualification in 2023 at least two months earlier than the selectors had envisaged for the Asian Games in 2022.
The presence of a fourth rider may have ensured that India would not need to count the scores of a rider-horse combination which was eliminated during the cross country leg. India, silver medal winner in the team event in 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta where Fouaad was the squad’s lodestar, finished fifth and last in Hangzhou. EFI had been assuring the Ministry of Eventing medals.
Obviously, the flow of the sand grains cannot be reversed in the hourglass of life, but greater accountability can surely be assigned to the office-bearers who remain in positions of power. It becomes imperative that no athlete suffers because of the whims and fancies of power-hungry official.
It will be interesting to see who all from the 2019 elections come back at the helm of affairs in EFI, to set the EFI on the right track.