“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play… It’s war minus shooting,” held the oracular George Orwell. The words, that have stood the test of time, resonated at Monday’s Indian Olympic Association elections, which some of the biggest stars in Indian sports contested. The exercise started in earnest with Olympic medallists sending nominations for two bodies of athletes in the IOA—Athletes’ Commission (AC) and Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOMs). Badminton star P V Sindhu and hockey medallist Harmanpreet Singh were elected unopposed to the AC as chair and vice-chair. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu and swimmer Sajan Prakash, too, entered the IOA general body as AC representatives. The nominees who withdrew did not ruffle peers’ feathers.
However, the SOMs election smacked of an Orwellian dystopia. Stars such as shooter Gagan Narang, wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt and boxer Vijender Singh were in the fray for eight posts—four male, four female—along with track-and-field legends P T Usha and Anju Bobby George. Beijing gold medallist Abhinav Bindra filed for SOMs, but did not contest.
The election took a dramatic turn on the final day for withdrawals. The four male SOMs were elected unopposed. Six remained in the female category despite pressure from various quarters including federations and allegedly even the sports ministry to whittle the list to four. The canvassing turned ugly with allegations of factionalism. Officials were busy trying to find who was voting for whom. All this happened despite a warning from the IOA returning officer to cast the secret ballots independently. The competition finally narrowed to between Usha and Anju. The latter pipped the former to join hockey star Rani Rampal, archer Dola Banerjee and badminton’s Saina Nehwal in the exalted group.
In the end, the process smacked of old IOA elections that were regrettably marked by manipulation, deceit and acrimony. If the new IOA constitution was adopted to avoid such a scene, it failed in the second election it witnessed. The episode reflected poorly on the sports ministry, too, and reminded us that sportspersons are, after all, human. Like Orwell said, sport can be “bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness”. As athletes train their eyes on Los Angeles 2028, let such feelings be left on the election floor.
