From his opening remarks to his comments at the end of a day-long interaction with Indian Olympic Association officials and representatives of National Sports Federations (NSF), Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju emphasised on his ministry’s consensus-driven approach. Stressing on it, he laid to rest fears of sports administrators on possible imposition of 2017 draft sports code.
“The issue has been resolved. An expert committee will look into it (draft sports code) at an appropriate time in consultation with IOA,” Rijiju said. “It's time to focus on 2020 and 2024 Olympics now,” he told the media after the meeting in New Delhi.
The existing sports code of 2011 will continue to be followed as of now.
The minister, reportedly, brokered peace between agitated sports administrators and determined top bureaucrats of his ministry, with the latter keen on implementing the draft sports code. With less than a year left to Tokyo Olympics, Rijiju clearly did not want the focus to be on administrative issues rather than on performances. “There is no imposition on sports bodies but mediocrity will also not be accepted,” he said.
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It is clear that the Union government will wait and watch till the Tokyo results come in and take a call accordingly on whether to set up a new committee to draft the sports code or not. Said one NSF representative, “The tone of the minister was conciliatory and his officials were not as autocratic as they have been in recent past.”
Thanking the minister for a patient hearing, IOA President Narinder Batra said, “The focus was more on preparations for 2024 and 2020 Olympics. I don’t understand why is there so much focus on minor issues like sports code. We are working together.”
In his opening remarks itself, Rijiju indicated his inclination towards a settlement. “We are not here to order or pressurise you. We are here to support you.” He reiterated that today’s meeting was to hammer out a settlement between the government officials and sports administrators.
The meeting’s agenda included preparations and requirements of NSFs specific to Olympics preparation, and discussion on the stand-off over various clauses related to age, tenure, cooling-off, structure of NSFs and IOA as per the proposed 2017 draft sports code.
It was headed by 2008 Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, long jumper Anju Bobby George, and included both SAI, ministry representatives along with Batra, who is also the president of the International Hockey Federation.
