Pack your bags and go home, Gill tells Hockey India
Kanwar Pal Singh Gill is back. The deposed president of the Indian Hockey Federation got a shot in the arm, with the Delhi High Court on Friday restoring the national body, two years after it was dissolved by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) over bribery allegations and poor on-field results.
The move brings Gill back to the helm, effectively sealing the current body’s — Hockey India — fate.
“Pack your bags and go home,” was Gill’s reaction when asked about the court verdict.
Gill felt the IOA and the sports ministry should accept the court’s verdict and allow the federation to function as the sole authority to run the sport in the country.
“It is a detailed and well-reasoned out order. It is self-explanatory and it has been taken in the interest of hockey in the country. Now it is for all the concerned parties to respect this order,” Gill said.
The IOA had dissolved the IHF in April 2008. A five-member ad-hoc panel was put into place, followed by Hockey India as the interim governing body for the national game.
Hockey India, on the other hand, said that the court order will have no bearing on its working. Said HI secretary-general Narinder Batra, “The world body does not recognise the IHF as it did not hold any annual general meeting between 2000 and 2009. These facts were not presented to the government.
“Hockey India is still the governing body for the game in the country,” he emphasised.
The court on the day rejected the plea of Centre that revival of IHF would result in a “chaotic” situation as Hockey India had already been formed and the Commonwealth Games are round the corner.
Gill added that “personal ambitions” of a few individuals had led to the IHF’s disbandment. “We have to start climbing the ladder once again because the last two years have been disastrous,” said Gill, who has been at the helm for nearly 15 years.
The court order will be a setback for Hockey India as its repeated attempts to hold the elections failed due to infighting and legal hurdles. The state associations have charged the body of manipulating the merger process of men’s and women’s units and many have also moved the court against HI.
On the other hand, there is pressure piling up from the International Hockey Federation (FIH), who had set Hockey India a May 31 deadline to hold the elections. The court ruling is likely to complicate the matter further.
Said FIH communications manager Arjen Meijer from Laussane, “The deadline is there, but the FIH does not want to comment at the moment.”
“Hockey India is a shadow body. It has never been in existence,” Gill said.
Asked about IHF’s future course of action, he said, “We will have a meeting of IHF and then decide on our future plans. I have not yet read the order.”
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