“I know he committed the murder, but I cannot punish him for want of evidence”. This is what a Sessions Court judge C.P. Tareja observed in the now historic Priadarshini Mattoo rape and murder case.

A similar situation emerged recently when a group of hockey Olympians met Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, on last Tuesday at New Delhi in his official chamber. Even before the celebrated Olympians, led by 80-plus double-Olympic gold medalist Nandy Singh, completed their case against the Indian Hockey Federation, Aiyar floored them with his no nonsense comment: “You think I don’t know all these things? Tell me first, do I have powers to take on these Federations?”

The famed stick-wielders, having no clue on legal matters, were truly trapped off side. But the diplomat turned politician relieved them instantly. After a pause, without waiting for their reply, he went on: “In my (young) days one Ashwini Kumar used to be the IHF president. Why not ask him to contest?”

Though it is a compliment for Ashwni Kumar, now 87, the question is what works in the mind of the Minister. It is easy to decipher with his above comments: Exact legal framework that supports or prevents governments from direct administration of Olympic Sports. Secondly, election is better solution to weed out undesirable elements from the sports bodies than the governmental intervention.

Indian sports history proves elections are no remedies to the problem that plague the sphere of sports governance. If at all, it lends only a temporary relief. For, every newly elected group, in the short run, proves to be greater evil than the one they succeeded.

It brings back to the vexed questions, discussed and dissected innumerable times in the past, to the fore. Are National Sports Federations truly autonomous, if so, to what extent? Are the governments that fund their programmes destined to be mere onlookers? Cant’ they assert even to extract a sort of accountability against their funding benevolence?

It seems the answer lies not in India, but elsewhere especially the United States.

At the peak of cold war, United States was losing to Soviet Russia in the Olympics medals tally. It was obviously not only acceptable to US but also an affront to its national pride. To arrest the downward trend, the first thing US did was to introduce the magic potion — “The Amateur Sports Act”, a Federal law extracts of which are available with the writer.

This Act considers United Stated Olympic Committee (USOC) as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), sets forth USOC 14 objects and purposes and also mandates USOC to annually provide a written report to Congress and the President of US. Thus, the control mechanism enjoin a veritable watch dog status to the government. Very significantly, this does not infringe any Olympic principles and is – our federation bosses would not like the hear but – recognized by the International Olympic Committee.

This is not to say government intervention, overt or covert, will lead to improvement in the sports governance, but only to highlight the myth created by the Indian Olympic Association in the country that they are ‘untouchable’ by the governments without whose support they can’t implement even a single programme. And the manner by which each successive governments accepted this myth

A sincere Sport Ministry or Minister can blow away the long survived myth of Federation’s non-existing devil dare autonomy; and can direct the legal luminaries at their disposal to apply their mind.

At least in the Priadarshini Mattoo’s case, public pressure led to the proper adjudication of justice. In hockey, the evidences are there for its murder, but the Judge is unsure whether he is Judge at all. It took eight long years for conviction of Mattoo’s murderer after Tereja’s judgement. If so many years are required for hockey to get its justice, take it from me, the sport would have been wiped out of Indian scenario by then. That case, the likes of Mani Shankar Aiyars will be free from Olympians’ tantrums.

Some of othe Olympians who met the Minister include: Commander Nandy Singh, Ashok Kumar, Abdul Aziz, Sukhvir Grewal, Zafar Iqbal, R.S. Bhola.

Olympians Demand:

A. Immediate Action

Institution an Enquiry Commission to find out reasons behind India’s pathetic shows at the recent World Cup and Asian Games and fix responsibility and take the perpetrators to the task.

Constitute a Hockey Steering Committee within the MYAS, consisting of reputed hockey Olympians, to monitor and advise all matters relating to hockey within the framework of the Ministry.

Scrutiny of IHF accounts by the MYAS or the ministry approach Enforcement Directorate or CBI to do the same.

Income tax