CHENNAI: The Indian Olympic Association on Wednesday formed a three-member panel to look after wrestling in the country. The sports ministry suspended the Wrestling Federation of India on Sunday, three days after the elections, for not following the constitution in making decisions. The ministry had requested the IOA to form a committee to oversee the day-to-day affairs of the WFI.
The IOA had a long deliberation and fell back on their trusted administrator former Wushu Association of India president Bhupinder Singh Bajwa. He was named as the chairperson of a three-member panel and will look into the affairs of the WFI. The other two members of the panel are hockey Olympian MM Somaya and former international badminton player Manjusha Kanwar.
The IOA too cited the newly-elected WFI executive committee’s violation of the constitution as one of the reasons for forming an ad hoc committee. While announcing the names, the IOA has said in a communication that “the IOA has recently become aware that the recently appointed president and officials of the WFI have made arbitrary decisions in violation of their own constitutional provisions and against the principles of good governance espoused by IOA and further without following due process overturning the rulings of the IOA-appointed ad hoc committee.” The IOA also said that this highlighted the governance gap within the federation.
The IOA said since “it considers adherence to governance norms as vital for ensuring fair play, transparency and accountability and to safeguard the interests of the sportspersons as espoused by IOC and to ensure continuity, it had been decided to appoint ad hoc committee…”
Things, however, may not be as easy because the United World Wrestling has yet to respond to the sports ministry's suspension and request to form an ad hoc committee.
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Bajwa, who was also the chairperson in the ad-hoc committee that looked after the day-to-day affairs of the WFI before the elections, said it would be a new challenge and since the sport is one of the most popular in the country, the responsibility of him and his co-members would be immense. First and foremost the panel would want to finalise the dates of the nationals (senior and junior). The old ad-hoc committee had already announced the dates before elections but the newly-elected body cancelled it.
“I have got another opportunity to serve the sport and I would definitely do everything I can to promote wrestling in the country,” Bajwa told this daily after he received the letter from the IOA. “As soon as I got the letter today I started to think about ways to promote the sport. This time I have two other members who are new to the committee. Hockey Olympian Somaya was the deputy chef de mission for the Asian Games when I was the chef de mission. So we have worked closely already. Former international badminton Manjusha Kanawar is the other member. All of us will find ways to promote and take the sport to greater heights.”
Bajwa felt since it’s an Olympic year, the challenges will be more. “This is an Olympic year and in the next seven months, we will have the mega event in Paris. So we have to start with national competitions and then we have to organise camps. We will channel our effort to help our wrestlers do well in the Asian and world qualifiers for the Olympics. We will do whatever it takes for the wrestlers to do well so that we win more quotas for the Olympics. And they win as many medals in Olympics also and any other international events.”
“The sport is very popular in India and we have to help it grow further,” he said about the sport that has fetched India medals at every Olympics since Sushil Kumar’s bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The newly formed ad-hoc committee is planning to meet soon and decide on some of the national competitions and training programmes. “We will meet in three-four days and announce the dates for the nationals again,” he said. “We will also decide on the training programme including foreign exposure trips. We will ensure the activities of the wrestlers continue.”
