There will be no honourary life president posts in All India Tennis Association. The decision has been taken by the national body after the sports ministry raised objections over the posts due to non-compliance with the National Sports Development Code of India. A top AITA official told this daily that this has been communicated to the persons holding these posts.
The AITA official said that around mid-March, the association had received a communication from the sports ministry, raising objection to the posts of life presidents and life vice presidents. Since there was no point going against the sports ministry again, after it got its recognition back in 2017 after complying with the sports code, the association thought it prudent to abolish these posts.
The AITA website lists two sets of life posts — life presidents with SM Krishna, Yashwant Sinha and Anil Khanna in the mix and Shatrughan Sinha and six others in the life vice presidents’ posts. According to AITA, an internal decision has been taken and communicated to all members who have been holding these positions some 10 days ago.
All other formalities of ratifying it in the house will happen soon after assessing the lockdown situation. According to the official, an executive committee needs to be convened and then the general body meeting needs to be called. It needs to be seen whether it would be physical or online.
However, according to a top sports ministry official, the issue was also regarding former AITA secretary general Khanna’s continuation as life president over cooling-off period as he completed two terms of four years as secretary. Khanna had a long tussle over cooling off period with the ministry since his election as president in 2012. He stepped down in 2016. This, according to AITA, is not true. An AITA official said it was never about this. The AITA official dismissed the notion that it was an issue of recognition since the annual recognition process is not over.
Meanwhile, AITA is on a collision course with the sports ministry after its secretary-general reportedly found sports secretary RS Julaniya’s suggestion to take help from PT teachers to scout talent baffling. “How can we scout with PT teachers?” was what the official said.
In response, Julaniya said: “My position is clear, unless you scout in the grassroots, no talent can develop,” he said. “You can’t depend on university professors with PhDs, you need primary teachers too. Certain teachers who are working in the grassroots can be relied upon to scout.”