The Yachting Association of India (YAI) Council, which is due to meet on Friday morning after a 20-month hiatus and more than seven months after its term expired, does not seem to have any time to discuss the sailors’ preparation for the ensuing Asian Games competition in the Zhejiang Ocean Sports Center, Ningbo, China.
However, the YAI Council will devote time to finding ways to restructure its Constitution to comply with the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011, and yet remain committed to being run by officers of the Indian Navy. It will also discuss granting memberships to individuals, affiliation and disaffiliation of member units as well approve the audited accounts for two years.
It does not seem to matter to the members of the YAI Council that their terms had lapsed in October 2022 since the election was held on October 24, 2019, and the term was three years. It also does not seem to prick their conscience that the last meeting of the Council was held nearly 20 months back on October 9, 2021.
Interestingly, Ranga Reddy District Sailing Association has filed a writ petition in the High Court of Telangana in Hyderabad stating that the YAI has been in contravention of the National Sports Code and has pleaded for directions to declare the YAI officials as not competent to hold/continue as office-bearers and council members.
Since the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports was directed by the Delhi High Court not to grant funds to National Sports Federations deemed as non-compliant with the National Sports Code, the last known approval for Government funding to YAI was in March 2022 for the year 2022-23.
It means that YAI had to raise resources to support the Asian Games probables. barring the four sailors supported by the Ministry’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme. There can be no doubt that without intense training and competitive exposure, most of the Indian sailors may find themselves under-prepared for the biggest event of their lives.
On April 25, the Court allowed MYAS to resume funding by including 2008 Olympic Games shooting gold medalist Abhinav Bindra and 1980 Asian Games hockey gold medalist MM Somaya in the panel to decide grants to athletes for training and competition, YAI may not yet have availed of the window of opportunity to push for the sailing team’s preparation for the Asian Games.
Clearly, the Council is feeling the heat in the wake of Court directions that all Federations must be Code compliant. Even though the Council is meeting well after its term of office has expired – and there is not even a whiff of when the elections will be held – it will spend precious little time in the preparation for the Asian Games (besides looking at the results of the trials).
It has, however, received suggestions from members about the clubs retaining voting rights and not letting State Associations gain ascendance. Tamil Nadu Sailing Association’s Ashok Thakkar has recommended that the YAI President must always be the Chief of Naval Staff and the YAI Secretary-General or CEO must always be a Naval officer nominated by the Chief of Naval Staff.
