Vinayak Padmadeo
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 13
The International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) has taken a grim view of the Sports Ministry’s stance that questioned “the neutrality” of the registrar appointed to hold the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) elections.
The ISSF in its correspondence has laid down the law, saying any further action by the ministry “is a clear violation of the autonomy of sports granted under the Olympic Charter”.
The ministry in its letter dated September 15, directing NRAI to reappoint a new returning officer and initiate fresh process to conduct elections, had seemingly sided with Shyam Singh Yadav’s plea that Justice (retd) Mehtab Singh Gill’s continuance was in effect a violation of ISSF’s Code of Ethics.
Yadav in his plea in the Delhi High Court had objected to Raninder Singh’s continuance as NRAI president and Gill’s appointment, claiming that as Punjab Chief Vigilance Commissioner, he had close personal and professional relationships with Raninder. Raninder, who won the election held on September 19, was unavailable for comments.
ISSF secretary general Alexander Ratner, in a letter, has said that ISSF’s Ethics Committee was the sole competent authority to see that all member units follow the code and the Sports Ministry has no role or legal entity to enforce the code. “The MYAS as part of the Indian government on the other hand is not entitled to issue any orders etc. whether based partially or wholly by issuing reference to or relying on the ISSF CoE. Doing so, in the ISSF’s opinion, constitutes a violation of the autonomy of sports granted under the Olympic Charter,” Ratner wrote.
“Therefore, you are required to convey to MYAS that should the order F.No.52-02/202SP-I imposed against the NRAI not be lifted within a reasonable period of time (determined in this instance as six calendar weeks), the ISSF will immediately inform the IOC and the Indian NOC about this matter for further investigation and shall also be required to investigate if and what measures need to be imposed by the competent ISSF bodies against the NRAI,” he added. He also asked the NRAI to investigate whether any of its member units had passed on the information that led to the ministry’s intervention in the election.
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