Times of India: Balbir’s family struggles to trace lost memorabilia gifted to SAI
NEW DELHI: Even as the Indian hockey team is getting ready for the battle in Rio, back home, a 93-year-old three-time hockey gold medallist is fighting his own battle – to regain his life-time medals which have gone “missing” due to official apathy.
Balbir Singh Senior will be making yet another visit to Delhi from Chandigarh after the Rio Games for meeting the authorities running sports in the country with the hope of getting at least some answer to a query he has been asking for four years.
Balbir’s grandson Kabeer told TOI on Saturday that the hockey legend had donated his life-time medals, rare photographs and Melbourne Games jacket to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) way back in 1985 for a museum. The museum was never set up and years later, there’s no trace the items donated by Balbir.
“Barring the Olympic medals, he gave it away all – totalling 36 – to SAI at the Nehru Stadium for a museum. He had given it in the hope that the museum would help the people to know about the rich heritage of sports in the country and inspire youngsters,” Kabeer said.
Balbir forgot about it once he donated the items for the proposed museum, but he was in for a rude shock when his family approach SAI to borrow the Melbourne Olympic jacket for display by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) during the London 2012 Games. “The other Olympic jackets were donated to other charities. So we approached SAI in 2012 for the Melbourne jacket. They said they will search for it but soon it was forgotten. We again contacted SAI in 2014 when the International Hockey Federation (FIH) wanted the jacket for permanent display in its museum in London, but they again said they are searching for it.”
Kabeer said that through RTI queries, SAI finally admitted later that they had received the items from Balbir and had handed over to National Institute of Sports (NSNIS), Patiala. “Probably they were trying to pass the buck,” said the legend’s grandson. Kabeer said if Balbir’s proposed meeting with sports minister Vijay Goel fails to yield any result, they might move court over the matter. “The items are not something we want to keep with our family. They are for the people of India. They are for the future generation of hockey. My grandfather played with pride for the country. It was his team which helped a newly independent India unfurl the Tricolour in all its glory in London in 1948, beating England in the final. These items are of sentimental value. You can’t lose them just like that.”