B. V. P. Rao resigned as the Archery Association of India president after the Supreme Court delivered a verdict to set aside the constitution of the association as amended by S. Y. Quraishi, the Delhi High Court appointed administrator.
Justices A. M. Khanwilkar and Ajay Rastogi on Wednesday ordered fresh elections to be held within four weeks.
“I’m resigning with immediate effect in protest against the Indian sports system which does not allow competent people to come in. If such people come in, it (the system) hinders in the way of functioning,” Rao told PTI .
Rao’s resignation means Indian archers will have a new administrative set-up before the marquee World Championship from June 10, 2019.
Rao, a retired IAS officer, was elected president of the association on December 22, 2018, in the elections held under the supervision of Quraishi, which brought to an end the era of Vijay Kumar Malhotra. Malhotra had served as the head of the association for 40 years — from 1973 to 2012 — before being de-recognised by the government for not following the sports code.
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The elections held last year weren’t initially recognised by World Archery as the constitution used was never formally approved by the General Assembly of the AAI. World Archery had also hinted at a possible suspension of the body.
Later, Rao himself visited the World Archery headquarters in Lausanne where he presented the minutes of the elective general assembly. World Archery subsequently announced that the AAI was a recognised member. However, a final decision on the matter is yet to be taken.
Objection
The Indian Sports Ministry and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) are yet to recognise the AAI elections. They have objected to certain clauses in the amended constitution submitted by Quraishi to the High Court. They pointed out that the amended constitution, in parts, did not conform to the National Sports Development Code of India (NSDCI), 2011.
The Sports Ministry has not included the AAI among the recognised national federations in its annual renewal. The IOA had said that providing individual members not representing State archery bodies voting rights was not allowed under the International Olympic Committee charter.
The AAI, under Rao, had copped a lot of criticism for its “poor planning” as the Indian archers failed to participate in the season-opening stage one World Cup in Colombo due to a delay in flight from New Delhi.
The AAI also drew criticism for picking a dope-tainted archer for the stage two of the World Cup. Some archers had also claimed that the selection of coach had discrepancies.
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