HI completes poll process; Nambiar’s election raises eyebrows

NEW DELHI: The much-postponed polls of Hockey India was finally completed but not without a tinge of controversy as the election of Ramesh Nambiar, who has been charge-sheeted by the CBI in multicrore defence scam, as one of the joint secretaries has raised question marks over the fairness of the entire process.

Although the results of the poll, which were postponed four times earlier, were not officially declared because of Supreme Court directive, it is learnt that veteran Vidya Stokes beat former India captain Pargat Singh for the President’s post while her close ally Narinder Batra defeated Gunjam Haider of Hockey Arunachal for the Secretary General’s position.

Stokes, who is the interim HI President, won the straight contest against Pargat by a big margin of 41-21 while Batra defeated Haider 41-18.

Another candidate from Stokes’ faction, Mustaq Ahmed became the HI treasurer, defeating Haider with a margin of 45-17.

However, what generated controversy was the unopposed election of Nambiar as one of the joint secretaries out of the four posts.

Nambiar, an Air India General Manager, was named in the CBI chargesheet in the Ordnance Factory Board scam, in which he, former OFB chairman Sudipta Ghosh and several others were arrested. Nambiar and others spent several weeks in jail before they were granted bail.

Asked how a CBI chargsheeted person can be elected as a HI office-bearer, Batra said, “Mr Nambiar comes from Air India. Air India has selected him to reprsent the institutional board in the elections.

“India is a democratic country so he has every right to contest. To add to it, he has still not been proved guilty so we have no right to prosecute him.”

According to details obtained from sources, a total of 62 voters out of 66 were present during today’s elections and four abstained from voting.

Altogether 31 states are affiliated to HI but two states have no voting power while the four insitutional boards were represented by a single voter.

HI, however, did not make the results public as the Supreme Court, while vacating the Delhi and Bombay High Court’s stay order, made it clear that hockey federation cannot implement the outcome of the elections till the next hearing before the apex court on August 19.

The HI elections were marred with controversies since the very first day. It was postponed four times earlier due to court cases in various states and allegations of manipulation in the electoral college.

On the eve of polls yesterday, Meghalaya State Olympic Association (MSOA) general secretary D Syiemlieh had lodged an FIR, claiming Hockey Meghalaya representative in HI elections, Raj Kakoti is the treasurer of Assam Olympic Association while women member Sumita Sinha also hails from Assam.

Even Pargat’s faction also said that the electoral college was fixed.

But Batra claimed that there was no impersonation in the electoral college and the polls were conducted in a free and transparent manner.

“The elections were clear and transparent. It was conducted by a Retd High Cout judge (Returning Officer Justice RC Chopra) and International Hockey Federation (FIH) observer (Antonio von Ondarza) and an IOA observer was also there,” he said.

“We also requested the government to send an observer but they did not. We would have appreciated if he was there.

“Regarding the affiliations given to state associations, there is no impersonation. All the names in the electoral college were approved by the government, FIH as well as Pargat,” he added.

Batra also rubbished suggestion that both he and Stokes are dummy candidates of troubled Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi, who is engulfed in a series of corruption allegations related to the October 3-14 event.

“I have no pressure, nothing from anywhere. If there is any personal vendata in between two persons, I am not concerned about it,” he said.

Incidentally, HI have defied the Sports Ministry’s age limitation guidelines to field an 83-year-old candidate in Stokes, which forced the government to issue a show-cause notice to the hockey body, asking as to why it should not be derecognised.

But Batra said HI is in no mood to engage in any tug-of-war with the government and he will soon sit with the Sports Ministry officials to find out an amicable solution to the problem.

“The government is important for us because it is above us. I must make it clear that we are not fighting with the government and whatever issues are there we will sit with them and try to resolve the matter,” he said.

Asked whether the government’s age and tenure limitation guidelines was acceptable to him, Batra said, “If you ask me I personally stand by the government guidelines but if you are asking me as HI secretary general I have to go by Indian Olympic Association stand.”

The HI Secretary General said even though Pargat lost the elections, he will be more than happy to include the former player in the game’s administration.

“Pargat is my younger brother. He will always be on board. He is very important for Indian hockey. I would like to have a united body and not a divided house,” Batra said.

A dejected Pargat, meanwhile, said as a true sportsman he accepts the verdict but will continue his fight against the wrongdoings in the system.

“It is a fight against the system. I will take the result of the election in true sportsman spirit. It is a democratic setup. I will continue to work to improve the level of hockey in this country,” he said.

Pargat also lambasted the ruling HI faction and said they are least bothered about the development of the national game.

“I have no issues but these people don’t think about the welfare of hockey. They only think about groupism. I challenged it and it is only the beginning. I wanted to take hockey out of this mess and see the game flourish,” the former right-back said.

FIH Vice-President Antonio von Ondarza, who was present during the elections as the world body’s observer, expressed relief over the completion of the polls.

“I am very happy that finally the elections have taken place. Things started moving in the right direction after the scathing reports in the media following the July 28 postponement,” he said.

“For us (FIH) HI is in good standing and they have complied to all the FIH guidelines,” he added.

Asked what will be FIH’s stand if the government refuses to recognise HI, Ondarza said, “The Olympic Charter is very clear that the sole governing body for sports in a country is the National Olympic Council and not the government.

“We always have had good dialogue with the Indian government and FIH is of the view that HI must be in good standing with the government and vice versa.”

The FIH official said that in order to ensure good governance, the world body has already put a limit on the tenure of its office bearers and will soon bring into effect restrictions on age.

“We don’t have age limits but in our General Assembly in November, we will come up with age limitation rules for our executive board members. We will be doing this not because of any pressure but to ensure good practice and good governance,” Ondarza said.