CHENNAI: The Boxing Federation of India mess is getting messier. After the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) formed a five-member ad-hoc committee for not holding elections on time, the BFI is contemplating taking legal action. As of now it is not certain who constitutes the BFI — the president or the two other office-bearers against whom enquiry has been initiated over financial irregularities.
What complicates matters is that the BFI elections were supposed to be held on February 2 but until now no notice has been issued. The old body can continue until the next takes charge but this can be challenged. And if the secretary and the treasurer are not on the same page as the president then things get more complicated. What also seems intriguing is that the secretary, who has the authority to call for a meeting or issue a notice for election, too did not think it prudent enough issue the notice. Like one member pointed out he should have send a notice for the meeting or election as well.
It is common practice that when existing body terms should expire they should be directed to hold elections without any further delay. As an apex body the IOA should not form an ad-hoc committee but should direct the federation to hold elections failure to which they can be suspended. The BFI president is set to approach the court. There is no clarity on the part of the sports ministry as well. Interestingly, the same ministry suspended the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) last year for not holding elections on time. As of now it is not clear if they would be in touch with the IOA ad-hoc committee. There is no international federation that is affiliated with the International Olympic Committee as well. The World Boxing with which BFI is associated with is favoured by the IOC but not yet recognised. The IOA too seems to be in a hurry to form an ad hoc committee. Though the IOA treasurer has objected to this, like one member pointed out, the silence of other BFI officials is also deafening.
In the backdrop, the IOA’s ad committee held its first meeting on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by Madhukant Pathak and attended online by Rajesh Bhandari, vice chairman, Virendra Singh Thakur, Shiva Thapa and DP Bhatt. The panel had discussed and drawn up rough plan for elections as well. “We have had our first meeting today and asked the BFI to send their paid staff to join us in the IOA Bhavan,” Pathak said after the meeting. “We have requested the IOA to give us space to work.”
Pathak said that their main objective would be to hold the elections as early as possible. “We are planning to call for a physical meeting with all the state association members during the first week of March,” he said. “We will send a letter to all the affiliated units (state, UT and others) asking about their current membership status. We would check their documents about their last election, whether they are affiliated to the state Olympic association. We have asked them to send it online. Otherwise they can hand over to us physically during the meeting also. This is to ensure that if there are any discrepancies or disputes it would be taken up with three-four days so that the disputes would be resolved.”
“We will hold the elections in April,” Pathak said. “April 20 is a Sunday and that is our target as of now. We are going to make a road map too which we will distribute among the members and IOA.”
“We cannot hold nationals because we cannot give them merit certificates but we will ensure that players do not suffer,” he said. “If there are national camps going on we will not interfere with them. If we need to send players for international competitions we will do that. If selection needs to be done it will be decided by an elite boxers’ selection panel. We have written to the Asian body and World Boxing as well about our functioning.”
The elections will be held under sports code and subsequent orders of various courts including Delhi High Court.