Ministry trains its guns on athletics federation

New Delhi - After acting against archery and boxing federations, the union sports ministry on Monday turned its guns on the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and asked it to explain its “election process” held in April.

Pradip Deb, secretary, department of sports, told IANS that the government has sought some clarifications from the AFI on the conduct of its election.

“We don’t want to get into the business of suspending sports bodies without a rhyme or reason. We have issued a show-cause notice to it. We have asked it to explain some of the issues in their election process,” said Deb.

Sports Mnister Jitendra Singh said the government is reviewing the functioning of all sports federations.

“As of now, we have not taken any move to de-recognise it. We will keep reviewing the working of all sports bodies,” he said.

AFI president Adille Sumariwalla told IANS that he had met the sports secretary and had explained to him the issues his department has raised.

“I have met the sports secretary and have explained all the points raised by the ministry. I want to make it amply clear that the AFI is completely in sync with the ministry. We have adopted the sports code in respect to the tenure of office and age limit of the office bearers,” he said.

AFI secretary-general C.K.Valson said the federation didn’t violate any norms during the election.

“We haven’t violated any rules while conducting the election. We have replied to the show-cause notice,” said Valson.

The notice to AFI comes close on the heels of the sports ministry de-recognising the Archery Association of India (AAI) and the Indian Boxing Federation (IBF). The world boxing body AIBA had also suspended the IABF on grounds of manipulating the election.

It all started with the the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deciding to suspend the Indian Olympic Association for not following the IOC Charter in conducting its election.