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Taekwondo tale: Office in Mumbai chawl, president with many posts

Two years after new body took over, athletes continue to suffer

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Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 4

India Taekwondo (IT), a governing body formed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to end the factional fight inside the Taekwondo Federation of India (TFI) due to which athletes were suffering, is conducting business exactly the way its predecessor was operating.

IT operates from Dongar Chawl in Kurla West area of Mumbai Suburban, as per the details it has filed with the Indian government’s GST authorities. However, in what raises curiosity and suspicion, the office address on IT’s website is the same as that of the Futsal Association of India, in a Mumbai shopping and commercial plaza.

Since IT’s inception in 2019, taekwondo has suffered — from fielding five athletes at the 2018 Asian Games (under TFI) to a situation in which India did not field a team for the Olympics qualifiers in May.

Why could not the Indian team participate in the qualifiers? Well, the officials were not aware about the quarantine rules in Jordan in May; also, a shambolic selection trial was held in which a lower weight category athlete was asked to fight a heavyweight; and only a select few athletes were invited for the Poomsae category trial, which was conducted online in June.

No elections

What is worse, IT, which was given conditional affiliation by World Taekwondo, is yet to conduct elections. It is yet to send relevant papers, including registration papers and a copy of audited accounts, to IOA — this is among mandatory requirements for a national sports federation (NSF) to get full IOA membership with voting rights.

IOA joint secretary Namdev Shirgaonkar, who was appointed the chairman of the five-member ad-hoc body to administer the sport in July 2019, is now the president of IT.

The IOA office has sent as many as five reminders to IT to submit the required papers to start the affiliation process, but Shirgaonkar said: “We have not received any reminders.” When quizzed further with specific dates on which the reminders were sent by IOA, he clarified that the IOA must communicate in clear terms about the paperwork.

“We are a registered federation under the Societies Act. No sports body can run without any proper paperwork in this country. The IOA has to seek what papers they need from us and we will provide them,” Shirgaonkar told The Tribune.

More issues

There’s controversy around Shirgaonkar, too. There are several complaints in the IOA office — including from several district associations in Maharashtra — claiming Shirgaonkar “forcefully” become the president of Maharashtra Taekwondo. Former TFI president Harish Kumar has registered a complaint against Shirgaonkar with the IOA Ethics Commission, alleging Shirgaonkar was controlling over 10 sports federations, in violation of the IOA constitution.

“When the IOA becomes a party to dirty politics, then what can one do? India Taekwondo is a creation of IOA. Remember, to destroy the India Hockey Federation led by KPS Gill, Hockey India was created. They (IOA) did the same with taekwondo,” Kumar said, adding: “Shirgaonkar is ineligible to be part of any IOA-affiliated body as he is running at least 10 federations. My reading is that IOA chief (Narinder Batra) wanted to give him an NSF so that he can be pitched for the secretary-general’s post to replace Rajeev Mehta.”

Man of many bodies

It is alleged that Shirgaonkar has been running the Modern Pentathlon Federation of India, Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association of India, Curling Association of India, Minifootball Association of India, Futsal Association of India, Amateur Soft Tennis Federation of India, Footvolley Association of India and National Teqball Federation. However, the catch is that many of these associations are not recognised by the IOA and they do not have websites that show a list of officebearers. Interestingly, he is also the convenor of the Olympians Association of India despite not having participated in the Olympics.

When quizzed on him allegedly wearing multiple hats, Shirgaonkar said apart from being the vice-president of Bobsleigh & Skeleton Association of India, vice-president of Maharashtra Olympic Association, president of India Taekwondo and joint-secretary of IOA, he currently has no association with any of the sports bodies mentioned.

“I resigned from the modern pentathlon body in 2017. I was a founding member of the soft tennis association. I have worked hard since my days in both state and district bodies of various organisations and that’s how I reached where I am today in the IOA,” Shirgaonkar clarified.

“I have acquired my current positions as per the rules and I am not in violation of any rules as per the IOA constitution. People can allege whatever they think but the fact remains I have worked in many organisations,” he added.

Interestingly, Shirgoankar’s brother Vitthal is the current secretary-general of the Modern Pentathlon Federation of India, while Namdev himself is a member of the fund-raising committee of the soft tennis federation on its social media page.

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