Sports ministry, SAI have a lot to answer as Rio-bound senior pro, a beneficiary of government funding, was part of awards panel that nominated Sania Mirza for Khel Ratna
This is bizarre and could land the Union sports ministry as well as the Sports Authority of India (SAI) in serious trouble. In a blatant case of conflict of interest, an athlete receiving government funds to prepare for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics was asked to select sportspersons for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award this year.
At a time when the ministry has decided to drag athletes to court, the presence of senior woman archer Dola Banerjee could be one that it may find hard to explain.
According to the government's rules and regulations regarding nominating players and officials in various award committees, no current player who is being funded by the government or is part of the ministry's much-hyped Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) should be nominated in any of the committees.
Banerjee was part of the committee which recommended Sania Mirza's name for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, ignoring the claim of Paralympian athlete HN Girisha. The committee was headed by Justice VK Bali, a retired chief justice of the Kerala High Court, and also had hockey legend MM Somaya apart from three journalists and top ministry officials.
The Karnataka High Court admitted Girisha's plea and stayed the Khel Ratna. It also issued notices to the Centre. The matter will be heard later. However, the ministry decided to go ahead with the awards ceremony and conferred the award on Mirza.
The ministry also tried to avert any controversy, possibly arising out of the committee formation, by projecting Banerjee as a former athlete in the selection panel list. However, it forgot to realise that its own press release a few weeks ago mentioned her as one of the beneficiaries of the TOPS funding.
Recently, Banerjee also received financial assistance from the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) for purchase of archery equipment worth Rs 2.25 lakh.
"This is really surprising that a current player, who is attending the national camp and getting TOPS funding, was named in the awards selection committee. This is clearly a violation of government's rules and could well lead to legal implications. Her name shouldn't be there in the first place as it not only amounts to conflict of interest, but could also influence the committee's decision in favour of a particular athlete," a senior Archery Association of India (AAI) official told dna on Friday.
It has been learnt that Banerjee's name was included at the behest of a very senior SAI official. The same official later ordered the AAI to include her name for the national camp despite her poor show at the National Ranking Trials. The AAI official said that Banerjee was not even part of the eight-member group selected for the national camp as she finished 10th in the trials. "But to our surprise, her name was included by SAI when the list was returned to us," the official informed.
AAI has now written back to SAI that if Banerjee can be included arbitrarily, then why should the top 12 finishers in the NRT not be called for the camp?
Even though the ministry's logic behind including Banerjee is based on the simple theory that if government is spending so much money on an athlete through TOPS, then how can she be not part of a camp conducted for the benefit of those going to Rio? It's a different matter, though, that AAI had not recommended her name for TOPS.
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