CHENNAI: These are tense days for rowing in the country. Recently, the Rowing Federation of India (RFI) was asked to re-conduct its elections. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) cited proxy voting and three votes cast by state/member associations instead of two as reasons.
Now, IOA president Narinder Batra has questioned on what basis the RFI had suspended Dattu Bhokanal for two years. “Please share with me the rules of RFI which allow to ban an athlete for two years and also under the referred rules what then are the mechanisms of appeal for the athlete under RFI rules against such ban and the copy of minutes of RFI AGM/EB in which these rules were approved and also are these rules in public domain, that is on website of RFI,” the IOA chief wrote in a letter to RFI.
This happened after Anju Bobby George, chairperson of the Athletes’ Commission, wrote to Batra asking him to look into the matter on Thursday. Bhokanal’s two-year ban started on April 30, 2019. A show-cause issued to him alleged that he stopped rowing after the 1000m mark during the men’s singles scull event of the 2018 Asian Games without any reason or explanation. The RFI also alleged that the 28-year-old nominated an unknown girl as coach, who got a cash award of Rs 12 lakh from the Maharashtra government.
Back then, Bhokanal had accepted all allegations and apologised for his actions. That’s when RFI sent him a mail suspending him. However, Bhokanal, who did not appeal the ban then, has directly written to the IOA Athletes’ Commission. That came as a shock to RFI president Rajlaxmi Singh Deo.
“Twenty-five per cent of the Executive Committee members of RFI, as per the Sports Code, are from the Athletes’ Commission. They are part of the disciplinary committee also. All problems go through them and I am very shocked that Dattu did not choose to appeal to them and has gone directly to the IOA. And why has he done it so many months after the ban?” she told this daily.
The RFI elections held last month saw high drama with Lt Gen Harpal Singh entering the fray for the post of president. And it is interesting to note that Bhokanal, who works in the army, has come up with the issue in the middle of all this.
Bhokanal was part of the Indian quartet that won gold in men’s quadruple sculls at the 2018 Asian Games. But he later left the race midway during the single sculls event. In his explanation, Bhokanal had said that he fell off the boat as it overturned and he was also not well on that day. The RFI had rejected his explanation.