Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 2 (IANS) The General Association of National Sports Federations (GANSF) Monday stated that it has no quarrel with the sports ministry over transparency and good governance and is only opposed to the clauses on age and tenure in the draft National Sports Development Bill.

At their meeting with the sports ministry-constituted four-member committee, headed by retired justice Mukul Mudgal, some 40 NSFs were unanimous in strongly opposing the age and tenure clauses stipulating that all officials should retire on attaining the age of 70 or three terms of four years each.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) vice president Arun Jaitley, who spoke for 45 minutes, captured the mood of all the NSFs when he said the bill would create confusion because of overlapping of jurisdiction.

“There will be overlapping of jurisdiction as who will control the sports federations, the government or the international sports federations? There will be two sources of power and the International Cricket Council is also strongly opposed to government interference in running the sport,” said Jaitley, a former union law minister.

Jaitley raised several issues, ranging from right to association and tenure, and said that for decades sports federations worked hard to form a body and their status could not be changed overnight.

“In BCCI we have already limited the term of office bearers, much before the bill was proposed. All the sports administrators are selected from the states and with the bill, the government wants to interfere in sports, which is a state subject,” he said.

“Everybody wants to take over cricket. Three state governments have attempted to take over cricket. I think if the government wants to regulate anything they should regulate financial grants,” he said.

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) officiating president Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who attended the meeting as the president of the Archery Association of India (AAI), said good governance cannot be assured by restricting the age-limit.

“The sports ministry feels that they should control sport. But I cannot accept the fact that age can be a factor for good governance. If the prime minister can give good governance at 78 why can’t we,” the 79-year-old Malhotra asked.

“The government is trying to armtwist the federations by these guidelines. The proposed guidelines are draconian and dictatorial,” he added.

Justice Mugdal said the committee had noted the problems raised by the sports federations and found merit in the issue of right to association raised by Jaitley.

“We have noted down all the problems and it will take three-four weeks for us to make the recommendations to the sports ministry,” he said.

Sports minister Ajay Maken, however, wondered as to how the legislation could in any way be construed as government interference.

“The legislation is aimed at bringing about transparency in election procedures through secret ballot and pre-determined and declared electoral colleges that would mandatorily have at least 25 percent of sportspersons as voters. It could not be comprehended as to how the NSFs being brought under the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act as public authorities and ensuring their accountability to the people of the country and sports lovers would amount to interference in their functioning,” Maken said in a statement.

“The government has no intention of interfering with the functioning and autonomy of the NSFs. It only wants transparency in their conduct and their accountability to the sports lovers and people of the country,” he said.