Archery Association of India chief V K Malhotra, Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) chief Vidya Stokes and Indian Judo Association president Jagdish Tytler may soon lose their titles if the National Sports Development Bill gets cleared in the monsoon session of Parliament.
The Bill, which has already been circulated as a Cabinet note and is on its last lap to become a law, will only allow persons below the age of 70 to head a sports body. This will come as a bad news for Malhotra (79 years) and Stokes (84 years). The Bill, sources in the law ministry say, also states that any person earlier heading a sports body has to perforce go through a ?cooling off? period of four years before seeking election as a head of another sports body, which is bad news for Tytler as he heads the Taekwondo Association too.
The Bill, for which former sports minister M S Gill had to openly disagree with his own parliamentary colleagues who dominate sports administration in India, will be moved by the current sports minister Ajay Maken. Maken, sources say, is depending on the climate of a ?clean-up? which the Commonwealth Games (CWG) scam has engendered to push through the Bill.
Apart from age restrictions, the Bill also states that no one person can head any sports administration body for more than 12 years. ?This can be continuous or broken up into numerous tenures,? said a source. Moreover, 25% of all posts in the governing body of any sport will have to be held by athletes who have competed at a certain level in that sport. ?This is aimed at making sports bodies more responsive to the needs of sportsmen and women, which even able administrators from other walks of life have not been able to do,? said a source.
The Bill will also take on the all-powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by designating it a ?public authority? and, therefore, subject it to the same sort of scrutiny as other sports bodies. ?The BCCI is a National Sports Federation, and according to the Right to Information Act, 2005, anybody who receives government money or benefits from the government is subject to the RTI Act, and therefore a public authority,? said the source. The BCCI had received a tax write-off of R100 crore before the 2011 World Cup and the sports ministry feels that it is a sufficient ground for the government to run interference.
The Bill is sure to ruffle feathers across the political spectrum as established clicques in sports bodies will find themselves ineligible to hold their posts. Sources say the sports ministry is not expecting a very smooth running of it, but the disgrace of the Commonwealth Games investigation may just power it through.