The quandary between the Ministry of Sports and the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) has been exacerbating with every passing day and a battle of words erupted between the two authorities, which could further demean the sport itself in the country.
The Ministry of Sports has declared the elections of the IHF as null and void citing administrative violations as the main reason in this regard. The Indian Hockey Federation completed the elections last week of which R K Shetty was elected President of the
federation in place of KPS Gill Singh.
The Sports Ministry of India wrote a letter to IHF saying that the federation had been warned earlier not to commence the electoral process till the fixture of criteria by the authorities concerned.
Injeti Srinivas, the Joint Secretary of the Indian Hockey Federation, was of the view that the federation could face de-recognition in the head of committing violations.
The letter further stated that the IHF being a recongnised body must inform the officials concerned in the government about elections or any other decision of the General Body Meeting as any failure in this regard could result in dangling of the federation.
Injeti Srinivas described the letter saying, “We are concerned by the blatant violation of rules. IHF had been given conditional recognition in the hope that they would fulfill the pre-requisites spelt out by us. They are yet to comply with those conditions.
As such, this election is null and void.”
On the other side, the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) rebutted the concerns of the Ministry of Sports explaining that the government has no authority to reject the electoral process of the federation.
Secretary General to the Indian Hockey Federation, Ashok Mathur, strongly condemned the statement of Injeti Srinivas, who, on behalf of the Sports Ministry, declared the electoral process as null and void. He was of the view that they had followed the directives
of the government in the elections, adding that they are the first ones who compiled the recommendations of the ministry by appointing a retired Judge as Returning officer in the elections.
Ashok Mathur further said that they respected the court's orders and had not declared the results of their earlier elections, which had been conducted on October 3rd, 2010.
Ashok explaining the situation, said, “The government was well informed about all the developments. Even the government observer was present during the merger of IHF and WHF on August 12th. We also informed the Registrar of Societies about the merger. So, how
can the government say that we did not follow their guidelines.”
The IHF Secretary asserted that he was surprised over the argument of the Sports Ministry as the Joint Secretary of the Ministry had no right to declare the polls invalid without seeing the concerned documents. Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) is not bound to
inform the Ministry of Sports about details of every event, and they had dispatched the answer to the government clarifying the matters and will also send further clarification within two to three days in this regard.
Ashok, in an annoyed state, further articulated that the government had asked them to submit an acceptance letter issued by the ‘Registrar of Societies’, however there was no such letter released thus far.
Hockey in India is facing severe troubles in recent times. Indian Hockey Federation (IHF), Hockey India (HI) and Sports Ministry of India have yet to resolve several issues, which are disturbing the game in the country. The performance of the national squad
is going down with every passing day due to political interference in the sport.
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