Malhotra lashes out at sports ministry over guidelines

Published>Wed, Nov 03 10 10:06 PM

New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS) Vijay Kumar Malhotra, president of the General Association of National Sports Federations (GANSF), Wednesday lashed out at the Union Sports Ministry for deliberately going after the sports officials, adopting double standards.

Malhotra, who is also the president of the Archery Association of India (AAI), asked why should the government be so concerned about the tenure and age of the officials of the National Sports Federations (NSF) when there is no cap on the officials in any other fields.

'When there is no cap on the tenure or the upper age limitation for Prime Minister, Union Ministers, chief ministers, MPs and MLAs, why should the elected officials of sports federations be unfairly singled out,' Malhotra asked.

'After all, like MPs and MLAs, we also get elected. Moreover, all NSF elections are held democratically and transparently. Importantly, we are not paid employees of government. If the government guidelines have to be implemented then they should be done uniformally. For that matter, no registered body will accept this fiat,' Malhotra told IANS.

Malhotra said the Indian Olympic Association, of which he is a vice-president, will soon take a decision to go to the Supreme Court and also take the matter to other democratic forums.

'If the government thinks the younger people are good for good governance, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's age is 76 and most chief ministers of the country, including the Delhi CM Shiela Dikshit, are above 70.

'Even the Sports Minister M.S. Gill himself is well past 70. If these people quit, then we will follow suit.

'Take a look at the presidents of most international federations, including the International Olympic Committee, Olympic Council of Asia, Commonwealth Games Federation, they are all into their 70s and have been around for long. They are there because of their competence and their services to the sport,' said Malhotra.

The Ministry listed the federations which are functioning in violation of the government guidelines when the Delhi High Court directed the Centre to implement the National Sports Policy. The list shows nearly 40 per cent of the NSFs have violated the tenure clause of three terms of four years each and some of them are over 70.

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