In an attempt to introduce transparency and good governance in sports, Maken has decided to bring in a national sports development legislation to regulate sports management and federations in the country.
In a smart and swift move, newly-appointed Union sports minister Ajay Maken has tried to beat sports federations at their own game, with their own set of rules.
In an attempt to introduce transparency and good governance in sports, Maken has decided to bring in a national sports development legislation to regulate sports management and federations in the country.
The new law, Maken said, is an attempt to weed out corruption, family hegemony, sexual harassment and abuse of power by federation officials by fixing their tenure and imposing age restrictions, besides, having active involvement of athletes/sportspersons and government in decision making.
In order to stave off resistance from sports federations, Maken has extensively relied on the basic universal principles of good governance (BUPOGG) as adopted by the XIII Olympic Congress of the Olympic and Sports Movements and the International Olympic Committee Charter while preparing the legislation. He has also quoted good international legislative practices and anti doping laws.
Maken’s argument is that these rules “are from your own international sports bodies, I am just implementing them, so you can’t crib.”
Quoting the core principles of BUPOGG, the proposed law seeks a clear, transparent and fair rules including a clean electoral roll, secret ballot besides limiting the term of office bearers and its duration. It has called for co-operation, coordination and consultation with governments to preserve autonomy.
In case the government goes ahead with its plans, then any federation member will cease to be a member when he reaches the age of 70. A member may serve for a maximum of two successive terms on the federation’s executive board regardless of the capacity to which he/she has been elected. In case a member has completed two successive terms, he may be elected again after a minimum period of two years. The draft bill also underlines the essentiality of athletes’ involvement in decision making with full voting rights. “Foolproof guidelines for age fraud detection need to be formulated and put forth as binding legislation,” the sports minister said.
Maken said the proposed comprehensive legislation is in the larger interest of Indian sports. He added that existing legislations in other countries can serve as good examples for drawing out prevalent best practices and quoted Ted Stevens Olympic Amateur Act of 1978 enacted by the United States, which provides for reservation of 20% membership and voting rights for amateur athletes who are actively involved in the sport and have represented the country in the past 10 years.
The minister said federations need to take measures against sexual harassment while ensuring that the guidelines laid down in the Vishakha case are implemented and taken into prospective while contemplating protection of women in sports from sexual harassment. The draft bill will be put up on government website for public comments.
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