Aslam slams Batra, says govt supporting hockey in a big way

NEW DELHI: Former Hockey India secretary general Mohammad Aslam on Wednesday slammed his successor Narinder Batra for attacking the government and said if not for the Sports Ministry, the ad-hoc body would have struggled to arrange finances for the national team’s exposure trips last year.

Batra recently accused the Sports Ministry of encouraging groupism and creating pressure on HI to grant affiliation to Hockey Punjab, a statement which Aslam termed as “foolish and uncalled for”.

“The statement of Mr Narinder Batra is absolutely rubbish. It was totally uncalled for and foolish to attack the Sports Ministry. From April last year to till now the Ministry has been supporting hockey in a big way,” Aslam said from Saharanpur.

“It is because of the government’s financial support we could send the national team to the exposure trips last year. All the money for the foreign trips came from the government barring Rs 65 lakhs which the Indian Olympic Association gave us as a loan and this money was utilised to accommodate extra players and support staff with the team,” he said.

“We enjoyed very good support from the Sports Minister MS Gill.”

Aslam also said that there was nothing fishy about the affiliation process of Hockey Punjab as was being claimed by HI.

“Hockey Punjab got recognition in normal circumstances as any other federation. But the unfortunate part is that there are many doubts about the affiliation of some other states”, Aslam said.

“It is shocking to see that the representatives of Karnataka and Chandigarh, who followed all the procedures, were being left out from the list,” the former secretary general said.

He also questioned HI’s intention behind the scrapping of former Indian Women’s Hockey Federation chief Amrit Bose’s name from the electoral college even though she was elected as the secretary of the Delhi ad-hoc body.

“This has been done to keep away Amrit Bose from contesting the elections as she was a candidate for the secretary’s post against Batra,” Aslam claimed.

“The president and secretary are the bona fide voters from any federation. If the president and secretary is not available then the president has the power to nominate somebody but this is completely unethical,” he said.

Aslam also held Batra responsible for damaging the autonomy of the Olympic movement in India.

“It was Batra who went to the court against erstwhile Indian Hockey Federation chief KPS Gill and only then the court asked the government to intervene in the affairs of all the national federations. This has damaged the autonomy of the Olympic movement.
“I don’t understand why IOA president Suresh Kalmadi has turned a deaf ear on all these,” he questioned.