Political Leaders Who Are Heading Sports Bodies In India
Sports and politics in India have had an intriguing relationship. Though a lot has changed on the field over the decade, including the rules of some sports, politicians, businessmen, and sports administrators, the scenario of having politicians as the federation heads remains the same.
After the end of each term, only the names change, and the quota always remains dominated by the sports landscape. Here are the details of various games headed by political leaders.
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Badminton
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was re-elected unopposed for a four-year term as the president of the Badminton Association of India. This is his second term after former Union minister and Congress leader Akhilesh Das Gupta served two terms until his death in 2017.
Archery
BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra’s dominance as president of the Archery Association of India lasted for four decades. However, in 2012, AAI was derecognized as Malhotra’s tenure was in violation of the age and term guidelines of the sports code. When the ban was later lifted in 2020, BJP leader and former Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda became the president.
Table Tennis
Just like other sports, table tennis too witnessed the dominance of the Chautalas in the federation. Meghna Ahlawat became the first female president by defeating Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi.
She is the wife of Haryana Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala who had been in the position since 2017. In February 2022, the Delhi High Court suspended TTFI and its executive council after India’s top female player Manika Batra alleged she was asked to lose a Tokyo Olympics qualification match against a player trained at the academy of national coach Soumyadeep Roy.
Shooting
Raninder Singh, son of former Punjab chief minister Amrinder Singh heads the National Rifle Association of India. This is the fourth term as president.
As per the rule, the sports code allows only three terms. NRAI officials had then claimed that Singh had not completed his 12 years as his first term was only for one-and-a-half years due to the death of his predecessor Digvijay Singh, five-time MP from Bihar.
Wrestling
Following the wrestler’s protest, Sanjay Singh, an RSS affiliate and close associate of Brij Bhushan was elected as the WFI chief. The former chief Brij Bhushan had to resign from the post as he was accused of sexually harassing women wrestlers.
Brij Bhushan was elected unopposed as the President for the third time in 2019.
Read also: PT Usha: When GOAT Fails On Solidarity Game
Athletics
Olympian Adille Sumariwalla has been the president of the Athletics Association of India since 2012. Before, the post was held by Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi. He began the journey with AAI in 1987 till 2005 and later he was again re-elected as the “life president” in 2006. His 25-year career ended when he was sacked in 2011 following a financial irregularity in the 2010 CWG.
Tennis
Anil Jain, Rajya Sabha MP was re-elected as the President of the AITA in 2020. He inherited the sporting capital from his father, Raj Kumar. The senior Khanna, who passed away in 2005, had served as the secretary and president.
In the Khanna family, the baton of sports administration has been passed on to the third generation.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) overlooks 36 national sports federations and facilitates the visit of teams to the Olympic Games and other multi-sporting events. Career athlete and Rajya Sabha MP (was nominated by former President of India Ram Nath Kovind) PT Usha became the first female Olympian to head the IOA.
Her recent comment on Vinesh Phogat’s disqualification sparked controversy. Despite being IOA chief, she removed the management from accountability and issued a statement that the responsibility lies on Vinesh Phogat.
