Changes likely in draft sports bill

Stiff opposition of the Congress and BJP leaders holding key positions in sports federations to the proposed sports law, notwithstanding the political cauldron over the Commonwealth Games scam, has forced the government to consider changes in the law.

Updated on: May 15, 2011, 14:55:03 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Stiff opposition of the Congress and BJP leaders holding key positions in sports federations to the proposed sports law, notwithstanding the political cauldron over the Commonwealth Games scam, has forced the government to consider changes in the law.

“We are willing to drop provisions believed to be intrusive to autonomy of national sports federations,” Sports Minister Ajay Maken told HT after national level consultations on the draft law ended in Friday.

For BJP, the tirade was led by VK Malhotra, who has been president of archery association for the past 32 years and Arun Jaitley, party’s Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha.

In absence of Suresh Kalmadi, Jagdish Tytler, former Congress MP and chief national judo federation for 15 years, has taken up the cudgels against the draft law that aims to regulate national sports federations

“The law will curb the autonomy of the sports federations as enshrined in the International Olympic Association charter,” Malhotra said. Tytler added that selection of the office bearers is an internal matter of the federations and the government should have nothing to do with it.

“The ones who will lose their positions are opposing it,” Maken said, while adding that Jaitley has agreed to support the bill if certain changes are made. “The decision on the changes will be made once we receive Justice Mudgal report next week.”

The draft law has provision of maximum two terms for an office bearer or age limit of 70 will bar many including Malhotra and Tytler from heading the federations. Others include Akali Dal leader S S Dhindsa and Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala.

The BJP has turned guns on the Congress once irregularities on conducting of Commonwealth Games surfaced in 2010 and all parties sought revamping of sports administration in the country. The government aimed to do so through the draft bill made public in February 2011.

Maken said the draft bill has received support cutting across political parties. BJP leaders such as Kirti Azad, a former cricketer and Congress leaders supported the bill at a meeting of Parliamentary committee on sports. “Even Left and Trinamool Congress want us to bring in this legislation,” the minister said.

The tumultuous fortnight of national consultations has forced the ministry to soften the bill and bring the public sector Sports Authority of India within its ambit. Maken said he was open to the idea of dropping provisions considered intrusive in functioning of sports federations but will not compromise on ensuring transparency in working of these federations. The minister has also agreed to bring SAI within the ambit of the draft law.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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