• Malhotra's false affidavit nails, DSA/SRFI/MYAS complicity in age fraud.. (by Rahul Kumar, New Delhi)
• Letter to Mr. Injeti Srinivas (by Roma Bhagat)
• Letter to Secretary Sports Rahul/Ira Kumar
• Letter to Secretary General, Indian Olympic Association
• Letter to Ms. Bhubneshwari Kumari (Government Observer Squash)
• Letter to Ministry of Sports

MANIAM  PEDDLES  TEAM  MEDALS

The desperation to win medals for India by dubious methods  seems to have trickled down to team events also , despite the fact that our players are capable of getting at least a bronze in both events without any favours.  It seems that Maniam is not confident of  his coaching or in fact the lack of it as most of the Indian contestants are based abroad , and anyway we have already proven that his agenda is more  to do with succession  politics and manipulation of rules, than teaching the game.

Every squash enthusiast  knows that in the men’s team section there are only 5 countries which can get medals barring a miracle. In today’s  ranking and performance order they are 1. Malaysia  2. Pakistan 3. India  4. Hong Kong  and 5.Kuwait. The fact that India has been pitted against 6 countries with Malaysia in Group B insures that we have already qualified for a bronze as no other team besides Malaysia can beat us even if Saurav does not play any matches. While pool  A is much tougher and  Pakistan seeded 1 overall  due to debatable factors already exposed , will  top  their half. The main battle will be between Hong Kong and Kuwait for the bronze with a slight edge to the former.

The women’s draw unlike the men’s does not take into account the Asian Team Championship  results held 6 months earlier where the positions were 1. Hong Kong 2 (AG – 2). India (AG – 3) 3. Malaysia ( AG – 1)  and the AG seeding are the opposite.  It’s obvious that the WISPA seeding is taking precedence while in the men’s despite a wide gap between the 3 top Malaysians compared to the 3 Pakistanis PSA  rankings , results etc have not been considered. Fortunately the Indian girls are also ensured of a medal as Hong Kong is the only contender for topping  pool B, whom we have beaten in the initial rounds of the Asian Championship , held  earlier this year. Thus our bronze is secure irrespective of our performance against Hong Kong which is more relevant for other purposes.

The fact that Joshna is playing higher than  Dipika  belies the fact that the WISPA ranking has not been used and nor was there any seeding trial held in India but is based on very old results and thereby rendering the ASF ranking for Asia null and void and  to be slotted as per convenience by select ASF officials to maximize  the outcome of matches. Thus 3 bronzes for India had been  ensured  before the first ball was hit and anything extra will be a bonus. For this largesse Maniam had to appease the other country officials by guaranteeing them medals, proving that the  contestants are irrelevant  pawns in the larger  game plan . 

  By Rahul Kumar (New Delhi)

MANIAM’S  FIXING TRICK  DOES NOT  CLICK   

Maniam’s devious schemes to sacrifice Dipika and count on Joshna’s 3-0 record against Wee Wern backfired as Joshna could not sustain the 2-0 lead against her higher ranked opponent and probably the pressure and  niggling doubt that this match was pre planned resulted in her loss. If Dipika had played Joey Chan as per exact seeding her performance could have been better rewarded than taking one game of the 5 times world champion Nicol. Thus  rigging the draw has cost the Indians more demoralization than joy and the fact that Saurav is in reality the 4^th seed only enforces his claim to at least a bronze, but his path should not have been made easier and unpalatable by pitting him against Sid who would have preferred  his chances against Ong Beng of Malaysia in the quarters against whom he lost in a 75 min 5 setter, in their last encounter.

The OCA  squash website  is the only one that now depicts the colourful strange anomalies not witnessed in any Asiad sport  of players competing against their own kin in the semis & quarters - not even justified by an exact ranking system ! India – 4 plays 7- Pakistan 3 vs 7 – Semis  Malaysia 1 vs 3 & Hong Kong 2vs 4 – Thus even the most consistently used method of placement has been shunned for these disastrous clashes which numb all sensibilities , so that Maniam can return to India unscathed .  

16:00 Asian Games Town Gymnasium
Centre Court Men's Individual Quarterfinal
Match 29

Men's Individual Quarterfinal
Match 30

 Saturday, 20 November

15:00 Asian Games Town Gymnasium
Centre Court Women's Individual Semifinal
Match 32

16:00 Asian Games Town Gymnasium
Centre Court Women's Individual Semifinal
Match 33

  By Rahul Kumar (New Delhi)

MANIAM SHIELDED – RIGGED  DRAW  FIELDED

To prevent any repercussions on the Technical Delegate Maniam for manipulating the draw ,rankings  and breaking numerous ASF/WSF/IOC rules and  spirit of the Asian Games into a farce ,his saviors have resorted to postponing the ignominy  of accountability  to another day. The News X interview depicted the National Consultant Coaches’ inability to reply  convincingly to any questions and his body language betrayed his guilt. Now  Mr Randhir Singh and IOC officials will have to explain why squash rules are different from other racket games, the necessity of fielding countrymen against each other,the startling coincidences since 1996 when in  all open  draws nationals were separated, but now predominantly medal winning ones have collided against each other at crucial rounds. 

Another  gaffe is the 2 Pakistani girls WISPA rankings shown on the ASF draw are also 2 years old as Maria Toor  has been shown as 69 ( April 2008) and Ashraf as 121(March 2009) instead of the ones from 10/2010 which positions them as  110 & 150 respectively. 

Today’s update is that the draw has been changed but for the insignificant reason of replacing Muqaddas Ashraf of Pakistan by Shoukat Saima of Pakistan in the same slot. Since it was being changed they could have corrected the more glaring irregularities and also another discrepancy just discovered where  Matsui Chinatsu the 9^th seed (highest in 9/16) is playing Low Wee Wern the  no 3 (3/4) while 4  lower ranked 9/16 seeds are playing 5/8 ranked players ! 

The fact that corruption is the biggest issue in India at present has also trickled down to sports where Kalmadi is being pressurized to resign from the IOA presidency  too, while his other close aides Darbari and Mahenderoo have been arrested and implicating the former. The resolve of the Delhi High Court to reaffirm the 8 and 12 year NSF tenure clause will directly debar Srivats (Sec Gen SRFI & ASF Vice President) and many other of his cronies from continuing - who have consistently flouted all rules for over a decade. The fact that nearly the entire SRFI committee including the WSF President and his wife are also holding similar posts in the Indian Triathlon Federation shows that sports is an instrument for personal aggrandizement and thus they will sacrifice any principle to stay in power. The only grievance is that they have ignored Maniam and Cyrus ,who for their loyalty should also have been inducted as Triathlon coaches. These developments and the impending court cases will further weaken the SRFI from continuing to implement their biased and motivated  policies in India or Asia. 

Now that it is clear that the perpetrators of this rigging will not relent, the fight will continue to oust all compromised officials from their entire local and ASF posts and the Asian players will insure that all rules are implemented and the vague or discriminatory ones clarified or removed.

  By Rahul Kumar (New Delhi)

OPEN QUERIES TO THE ASIAD ASF COMMITTEE 

The Secretary General ASF/WSF – Technical Committee       14/11/2010 

Subject – Asian Games Squash Draws 

Dear Sir,

              As you are aware the TD Major Maniam has been manipulating the Asiad draws since Doha 2006 and the facts are well recorded. We hoped that after some queries you would rectify the draw in accordance with the Asiad/WSF/Olympic Charter, but instead you let Maniam continue with his agenda to rig the draw to compensate for the debacle of no CWG medals for India at the expense of the top Asian players being forced to play their own nationals so that India is insured of a medal. Unfortunately the draws have become a farce as the medal winning countries have been predicted by pitting players of the same country against each other in the crucial stages. Look at the other racket sport draws, even other games and you will see that these irregularities have only been permitted in squash. The details of this misadventure have been mailed to  the media, some concerned officials etc and if this illegality is not addressed squash administrators will be questioned for the next Olympic bid ,as already a new body  of prominent Olympians has written to the IOC President about the corruption in Indian sports. 

Many past transgressions, including your contradictory e-mails regarding the Asian Juniors 2010  have been included in writ petitions in the Delhi High Courts  which do not have jurisdiction over the ASF but other bodies like the OCA/IOC etc can take cognizance of all illegalities when the cases of arbitrary functioning are presented to them. 

The latest cover up on the ASF site is a desperate attempt to justify a fraudulent draw. The men’s seeding has shown Dick Lau(HKG) ranking in October as 97 and thus seeded 9/16 while Abdullah Almezayen(KUW)  has been shown as 75 and thus 5/8 but the opposite is true – please check the PSA site again and this deliberate attempt to mislead the players has been recorded. The irony is that your own site  shows the latest  PSA/ASF  rankings which even today show that Dick is 11 and Abdullah is 14 in Asia. The problem is that if you upgrade Dick to 5/8 then he cannot come up against Siddharth Suchde of India in the pre – quarters as both are ranked 5/8 and thus it is inevitable to change the draw as it is extremely unfair to pit the no 7 seed the no 8 seed against each other in the round of 16.Thus if a draw is being changed it should be for both sexes  by the players; in front of them and they should ensure that the countries have been segregated ; the individual world rankings take precedence over the less accurate  group seeding(5/8 etc) or if other world or continental rankings are used then the same should be used for everyone and not only Abdullah ,Joshna etc but also the non PSA/WISPA players, as some  of them are better than the ones playing the professional circuit.

The change will also mean that Dick will get the bye and Meng Xiaomin (CHN) will have to play somebody in the first round as he is ranked 16 and did not qualify for a bye in the first place. 

The Rules broken by the Technical Director Maniam  in Asiad 2010 are

1 The  OCA Rules & Constitution mentioned above and  the ASF  Competition Technical Information for the ASIAD 2010 states that General Issues will be resolved in accordance with the OCA Constitution and Rules and thus in all 2 player events segregation of players will be done as in Tennis, TT, Badminton etc will also pertain to squash and nothing stated in  the ASF Rule M7  clashes with the OCA rule. 

2. No Open Draw where the parameters of different lots were verified by Asiad squash players or info shared, like in Tennis etc infringing on Rule R3

3. Wrong seeding given on the ASF site resulting in 2 5/8 players playing in the pre quarters breaking Rule R-1 & M8

4. Rule R1 of the ASF not adhered to on the ASF Asian Ranking website itself.

5. Bye given to 15^th ranked player instead of  8^th or 10 to 14^th breaking  Rule M8

6. All e-mails to ASF officials bouncing so no clarifications or complaints can be made. 

Hope good sense finally prevails

By Rahul Kumar, Delhi

NO MEDALS BUT CRORES EMBEZZLED

The SRFI embarked upon an ambitious scheme in their LTDP (Long Term Development Program) by which they got Government funding  over a decade (2000- 2010) for the development of squash in India and players peaking for the CWG in Delhi. By now after crores poured into their failed grandiose schemes it is  only the officials who have benefitted  as  squash was only a means of enrichment and  Maniam an instrument  for Ramachandran’s  ascent in the  hierarchy of the WSF (World Squash Federation) 

Some of the most significant statements made by the World President  in the past few years reveals his intentions and mindset .In 2000  8 squash centres  spread all over the country were supposed to be operational and reinforce the CWG potential players especially in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkatta. These academies existed only on paper and the funding usurped. In 2006 Ramachandran statement  “ ....Delhi will anyway get a world class facility with the Commonwealth games coming up belied the existence of the SRFI /ICl academy in the capital even though it their LTDP,s continued harping on State Training centers in all major cities.

This second lie has also been exposed as the new Sri Fort squash complex  built at an inflated price is not commercially viable and thus  its courts  etc will double up into  more lucrative  propositions  like   banquet , conference or wedding  outlets. The cost of each doubles court comes to about Rs 18 lakhs and the all glass court about 1.5 Crore making the total project under Rs 5 Crore. The  CWG  OC (Organizing Committee)  for reasons best known to itself finally gave the total contract to ASB through its propped up surrogate Jubilee Sports for over Rs 11 Crores ! This was a trading company without any background in squash compared to about half a dozen Indian firms with foreign WSF approved collaborations according to the requirements of the OC tender, who were ignored in the initial enquiry( response by 7/3/09  and in the final list without any reason -  not even a price quotation. Another unusual feature was that this enquiry ignored asking for specialized squash panels or plaster , which featured 2 or 3 sides of a court.

To understand these irregularities one has to delve back to 1999 when N Ramachandran was the first and only customer (except 1 Rainbow  court at MCC in Chennai) who invited ASB  to  construct all the courts for his private ICL squash Academy between 99 till 2005. Citing these as the best courts he never bothered to recommend these Rainbow courts to any other state associations or private builders despite being the de facto agent (through ICL) along with the TNSRA (Tamil Nadu Squash Rackets Association) of these different courts . 

The predictions that SRFI would get the squash courts contract for ASB started with the article “Squash may soon be part of Olympic Games:Randhir Singh Chennai | on , Dec 5 2007 .” Mr Randhir Singh hailed the world class infrastructure for squash got up by the India Cements Limited(ICL) here which lifted the sport to almost mass level, said officials of the Delhi Development Corporation (DDC) would visit the academy. The facilities here would be duplicated in Delhi for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he announced.”

In an Counter – Affidavit to WP (C) No 4439 of 2008 Rishi Jalan vs the SRFI the following statements were attributed to him . “It is submitted that the World Championships/ Asian Games/ Commonwealth games will predominantly be played on ASB Rainbow Courts which is the latest in the squash court technology.”  dated   June 10^th 2008.  This prediction before the bids were finalized and the fact that ASB got the total contract of the wooden flooring, side panels and glass sidewalls   on a single bid without price comparisons with any other WSF approved  competitor reveals the true picture which has been  awarding the highest bidder despite all factors being equal.

The other corroborating facts are the  ex COO of the OC  Vijay Kumar Gautam (IAS)  another cohort of the ICL/TNSRA combine , after being kicked out of ISP( Indian Squash Professionals  - a squash NGO) for misconduct with some female staff   befriended Ramachandran ( Sec Gen SRFI)  (Squash Rackets Federation Of  India) who was  a high official in IOA, CWG and earlier  in SAI .  Vijay was posted to the MYAS where the late Sec Sports Mr SK Arora got rid of the latter when he found out about his shady dealings. But Vijay was picked up by Suresh Kalmadi who wanted exactly these sort of manipulators but a few months later realized that Vijay had conned the CWG of about Rs 250 crore, and thus dismissed him . In an  August  2010 article   “A Ringmaster’s Reckoning  “ by Anil Verghese it is  stated  that Vijay  “ used to disappear before every important meeting to this second office “, says   the former employee, who further alleges that the aim with most tenders seems to have been to restrict bidder to one of the OC.s choices.  He says specifications were crafted in a way that most interested bidders did not make it past the pre- qualification round. The fact that Vijay favoured Jubilee Sports (JSTL) for other contracts too, establishes a clear link between  ASB , the /ICL / TNSRA/SRFI  combine,  Jubilee  Sports and him . The reason Rami had to be very cautious by promoting ASB was that he had been elected WSF President and one of the clauses in the Memorandum was conflict of interests,  in this case promoting ASB.

Another  fraud was perpetuated by misleading propaganda about winning  4 medals in CWG 2010 .A quote from LTDP 2006  reaffirmed the same in 2007   “With constant exposure and training, the SRFI believes we would be able to go for a bronze medal in the Men’s, Women’s and Doubles.” On November 6^th a SRFI circular stated that the GOI had whittled down their expectations to only 2 medals, which would only be in doubles. The hypocrisy lies in the fact that the SRFI never built any double courts in India except in Rami’s  personal  ICL academy at Chennai and thus insuring that practise was only limited to  his academy players . The fact that India’s realistic hopes for even a bronze rested only in doubles where the individual ranking and standard takes a back seat to coordination and understanding as shown by Leander and Bhupati for decades, even sans a singles  ranking,  and the unexpected  Badminton and TT  CWG gold’s . But this lesson was ignored by the SRFI and at the last moment Saurav  opted  out of the Men’s doubles to create the debacle of  no medals in squash while their counterpart racket games like tennis, badminton and table tennis, all  got gold, and bonuses of silver and bronze. The fact that Saurav along with Ritwik had been World Championships runners up, and Asian Championship semi finalists way back in 2004 and 2006 respectively, seemed to have  been forgotten.

The financial and human costs of this pre mediated fraudulent enterprise was  initiated in 1999 when the CWG  LTDP was put in place . This step was taken by the MYAS(Ministry of Youth & Sports Affairs)  to ensure our top players peaked during the CWG and crores were given to the SRFI  in form of  finance, infrastructure, manpower and equipment  even before the  enhanced 2008 – 2010 budget  of over 9 crores  for the final preparations. But all the assets were utilized for Ramachandran’s  personal ICL squash  academy  and the rest of India did not get  doubles courts; all glass courts ; the MYAS  Sportal  website  mentioned  8 state training centers ;  coaches; training programs and everything mentioned in the untraceable  LTDP’s was fiction and as the ex GO aptly put it, these  schemes were only to gather funds for SRFI’s personal agenda. The fact that for all other racket games like  Tennis , Badminton and Table Tennis  SAI has facilities in different cities,  but none for squash. The reason is the embezzlement of funds allocated in circa 1999 to the ICL/SRFI combine  to build 8 centers  like the ICL one in Chennai  in collaboration with SAI-  which remain unknown despite being mentioned in the MYAS approved LTDP every year.

The CWG foreign Consultant coach Major Maniam got continuous extensions, a handsome salary  with all taxes paid for furtherance of N Ramachandran’s Asian and World  President ship ambitions  in which he was successful but at the expense of no CWG medals and reducing the base of squash in India to mediocre players with all top players shifting abroad unlike Badminton where Gopichand etc made champions in India . In 2006 Maniam and  Cyrus seconded Ramachandran proposal to withdraw the Indian contingent from the Manchester CWG because he did not want to waste the GOI funds as they were not medal prospects. Post 2006, 4 years later  with over 10  crores funding and home advantage , these  world class coaches have still not  got a medal. The 11.6 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between SAI and concerned NSF: states 

“A binding bi-partite Agreement will be signed between SAI and the concerned NSF clearly specifying the role of the two agencies, as per agreed LTF and ACTCs and specific targets in terms of performance for NSFs. The MOU will also indicate the penalty clause for not meeting the commitments or targets.”  Now that the SRFI has not met any of their targets will SAI uphold the penalty clause – the fact is that  the SRFI has been rewarded by Maniam’s contract being  extended  till 2012,  shows the depth of  collusion between these two corrupt organizations.  The story does not end there as Maniam has rigged the Asian Games draws again to insure that India gets at least a couple of medals to compensate for the CWG  fiasco. This scam is already under investigation and will be revealed very soon.

The other embezzlement  concerns the allotment of  Diet money including overhead & food supplements SAI Centre- Rs.450/550 and Non-SAI Centre  Rs 950/1050  for about 27 core players under the heading “Status Report on Preparation of Indian Teams for 2010 Commonwealth Games as on 20/10/09”  Despite all the players having stated they never received these funds or supplements the SRFI  Sec Gen. Srivats has denied that – but without producing one shred of evidence – if he is so sincere why doesn’t  he account for the utilization of  the  total Rs 9. 5 crores received for the CWG under all heads on SRFI  website and end the matter. That will also clarify the other disputes where many players have paid  for their own PSA membership, equipment  ,transportation and boarding  costs  for  many  CWG approved tournaments   which has been forbidden by SAI regulations under  SCHEME FOR PREPARATION OF INDIAN TEAM FOR COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010  which states  “Each NSF shall give an undertaking that it shall not pass any of these costs to the players or their families. All expenses over and above the prescribed pattern shall be met by the concerned NSF from its own resources.”

One recent example of how the CWG funds were not awarded to the best ever U-15 junior Mahesh Mangonkar. He was the last to be put into the CWG squad despite fantastic results because he did not train in Chennai. He missed out on crucial CWG training funds and even his PSA entry fee was not paid. His recent results at the Pune and Maharashtra Open  (both in OCT) where he beat India no 6 and India no 4 in two successive tournaments back to back at the young age of 16 show that all Indian success has come from personal funds and initiative and by training in Egypt , UK and USA where the coaches are younger more accomplished and sincere than the ones in Chennai who all have personal agendas and are incapable of  training the top players and thus they have moved or go abroad for anything more than drilling . Despite beating Sandeep twice in SRFI tournaments Mahesh has not  been considered for the Asian Games men’s team of 4 , which has been introduced for the first time . In contrast Saurav Goshal  the then U -17 champ was chosen as the second player in the individuals  over all the U-19 and Men’s top players  without selections and despite having lost to many of them above him. The catch was that he had just shifted to the ICL academy in Chennai and as expected he lost in the first round to another un seeded player. 

Moral of the story – Loyalty to Chennai is more important than results as the MYAS/SAI are not bothered about all the failed predictions as long as their vested interests are protected by the corrupt  officials of  a private  academy which selects the Indian team from its own recruits or  at their whims and fancies,. at the expense of the rest of India.

MALHOTRA’S  FALSE  AFFIDAVIT  NAILS ,DSA/SRFI /MYAS COMPLICITY IN  AGE FRAUD

The  U-13 Girls National Champion of   2007 caught cheating her age at the behest of her  father by false documentation  is the first direct evidence of how the SRFI and their cronies  practise circumventing the law. The revelation by the ubiquitous Vijay Puri of the false affidavit by Anil Malhotra to lessen his daughter Pankhuri's age proves the connivance of the DSA (Delhi Squash Association )SRFI and MYAS(Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports)  Joint Secretary Injeti Srinivas in ignoring all complaints of age cheating as these players were being shielded by the same organizations that were supposed to weed them out. In mid 2008 a complaint about Pankhuri was sent to the SRFI/DSA and MYAS implicating the Government Observer,(GO)  Bhuvneshwari Kumari and some teachers for  perpetuating this methodology to attain success, but to no avail.

Due to new revelations of rampant age cheating and the Delhi High Court  PIL filed by Rahul Mehra  Injeti was pressurised  into announcing a cleanup  by  actually equating  age fraud to doping and issued new guidelines for sophisticated testing to weed out this menace. But since the above mentioned clique had promoted, sponsored and forwarded the entries of so many overage players how could they expose Pankhuri and ignore the rest without committing hara kiri. Thus the SRFI/DSA website ignored the issue and advised Pankhuri not to enter a few tournaments till the matter died down. The victims who had lost their titles and prize money were not informed or compensated, thus proving collusion  by all concerned parties. The latest scam and slap on the face of the victims is that Pankhuri’s name has been added to the draw of the CWG test event  without a thought to the rights of the players who lost out ! It was ironic that  Vijay Goel, President Of DSA (delhi Squash Association) , Executive Committee of the SRFI and chief architect of  promoting  the largest contingent of age cheats through his company Dhampur Sugar Mills (DSM), was the Chief Guest and presented the awards. The traversity was the re-emergence of Pankhuri whose name was cleared and forwarded by DSA for this CWG test event, a blot on the spirit of these games.

Thus the message to the lawbreakers by the SRFI is that don’t worry even if you are caught no titles or prize money shall be rewarded to the victims; our website will not show you as a perpetrator and nor will it mention any ban so that players in the future may not be disheartened to take this path to achieve success Our intentions are clear and you can see from past experience of players caught or accused of age fraud have gone free and even rewarded like  M or A Parthiban(ICL/TNSRA) ,Vishal  Sharma(DSM), Vikas Kumar(DSM), Vikas Garg,(DSM) Pradeep Thakur(DSM), Imran Khan(DSM), Farman Khan(DSM),Paramjeet Singh(DSM/ICL), Sarvesh Chauhan (SRAM), Ravi Dixit,(DSM/ICL), Prince Thakur (DSM), JP Mishra(DSM), Deepak Mishra (DSM/ICL), Kush Kumar(DSM/ICL), Ranjeet Singh(DSM), Abhinav Sinha( UP) Tushar Kothari (RJ/ICL), Karan Tharyamal(RJ), Sujat Barua(RJ/ICL), Sandeep Yadav (UP) and Pankhuri Malhotra (DSA/SRFI) There are some other players from famous boarding schools like Mayo College who may have changed their age for admission purposes but the same is being used for tournament participation. In an article in The Hindu on July 11^th 2004 Mr. N. Ramachandran, SRFI Secretary- General, briefing newsmen said the federation had identified around a dozen players who were in the suspect category with regard to age. “ We will be calling them to Chennai and have them examined by medical experts. Should the conclusion be that the players concerned are beyond the age specified in their age certificates then they face a ban for a year”, he said. In case the matter goes to court, the SRFI was prepared to fight it out legally, he added.

But far from taking any action or even identifying the culprits the  SRFI developed a better strategy of importing these players and granting them impunity if they joined their puppet ICL/TNSRA combine and played for them. Who could challenge the National Federation if they promoted these cheats and thus began the program of rewarding players like Parthiban, Paramjeet, Sujat, Tushar,  Ravi ,Kush and Deepak etc. One similarity between them was a lack of a birth certificate and thus easy manipulation of DOB’s even at a later stage.

The fact that Ravi Dixit, an India Cements Ltd (ICL) product whose  incredulous age and education  antecedents were  exposed by SRAM,ISP, SRFD and the previous Government Observer went unheeded,  has now been heralded as the first Asian Junior Champion 2010 which  is another propaganda ploy by the ISA/ TNSRA combine. . Firstly  Ritwik won the Asian U-19 title in December 1998  and Bikram Uberoi in  2000 irrespective of the difference in nomenclature  they won  the Asian U-19 juniors title  period. Injeti,Srinivas The Joint Sectary (MYAS), also the Grievance Redress in charge and self  proclaimed champion of good governance, representing Indian Sports to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Switzerland gave all the ICL age fraud accused players a clean chit without demanding any verification process. 

These incidents which are a blot on India’s image make it  imperative that all suspect players representing India for junior events  should be tested for age before being cleared by independent agencies not involving the federations or government sports bodies who have been compromised long back. The start should be made with Ravi Dixit and Kush Kumar as an example to assure the Indian public that the new guidelines  are going to be implemented and they are not another ploy to deceive the public and disgrace India  in the future. Ravi is being sent  this month for the World Juniors even though there has been enough evidence forwarded to the MYAS about the veracity of his age and nor has he been tested under the new May 2010  norms  of the “ National Code against Age Fraud”  This expose should now be used to weed out all unsavoury elements benefitting from the  motivated lax attitude of the SRFI which had  backed the myth that the passport age is sacrosanct, despite being proved  wrong in the case of  Sujat and now Pankhuri.  

Two new cases have also come to light. The first is an interview in Indian Express (Mumbai Newsline dated 13 /9//2004 where Khush Sharma , a nine year old boy was travelling to Mumbai for the first time along with 11 other participants from Dhampur. Khush Sharma (actually Singh) later became Khush Kumar and is now known as Kush Kumar , the winner of many National and a couple of International tournaments. His date of birth according to this interview should be 29/5/95 but after this success like most DSM players it was changed to 29/5/96 and the rest is history. In another interview to a UAE magazine  under “Rustic Youth turn Keen Champions” Khush Kumar has been classified as 13 and had been declared the most promising player after winning the U- 11 National title in 2005, when Ravi Dixit was India no 2 U-15 in the same year. This interview took place in mid  Sept 2006 when Ravi was supposedly 14 ! These blatant discrepancies prove that a massive campaign has been launched to change age, names and schools for a cover up, but the player inadvertently reveals the truth ! 

Tushari Kothari from Jodhpur played the Junior Nationals in 2005 in the U-11 category. That means his date of birth should have been 4/2 /1995 as it was his last year U-11.  Then in 2006 he played  the Junior Nationals  in the U-13 category.  But in 2007 he made a double jump to the U-15 category not because he was too good for the U- 13’s but because he had fudged his age by a year and the SRFI now wary of promoting new overage players in the ICL academy probably recommended that he play U-15  and thus skip the embarrassment of committing age fraud and probably responsible for his  sudden unexplained  departure  from the ICL academy.  

An updated chart has been attached to show how overage players  including  Pankhuri have been rewarded at the expense of genuine players by the same organizations which were supposed to debar them! 

                              DHAMPUR  SUGAR MILLS (UP) BOYS FOUND OVERAGE

To,                                                                                                                                          

Mr Injeti Srinivas 

Joint Secretary (Sports) GOI      

Shastri Bhawan   

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports                                                                                                                                     

New Delhi- 110001

Subject – Notice under Section 80 CPC for civil damages

Sir, 

I write Under instructions of and on behalf of my clients , Karm Kumar son of  Rahul Kumar resident of  J-501 Som Vihar , have to state as follows : -

1. That my client is a junior squash player holding a British Passport along with an OCI status.
2. That in the year 2006 my client was selected to represent India at the Asian Juniors at Singapore in the U-15 category.
3. That in the September of the same year he was also included in the 2006-10 LTDP as a Special Project Player.
4. That in March 2007 the SRFI circulated a letter to players chosen to participate in the Malaysian Tour as a precursor to the World Juniors in 2008 wherein for the first time it stated that only persons with valid Indian Passports would be eligible.
5. That in the LTDP review meeting held on 9/4/07 at the SAI office New Delhi  participation of foreign passport holders  was discussed.
6. That subsequently the Government Observer Brig . R K Manchanda (retd) who was present at the meeting wrote to you that Karm and Cyril should be included in the forthcoming trials.
7. That this letter as also the letter of my clients father Mr Rahul Kumar who also wrote to you regarding the inclusion of his son was ignored by you and till date no explanation has been forthcoming for ignoring the recommendation  of the GO .
8. That my clients father Rahul Kumar had specifically met you regarding the inclusion of his son on the grounds of his eligibility for the following reasons.

1. My clients eligibility in the domestic circuit which was not taken into account because SRFI failed to maintain a ranking system as per the government guidelines and their own LTDP.
2. Based on the fact that overage and weaker players were called whose exclusion would have automatically entitled my client to inclusion in the trials.
3. My client was not only higher in merit but was also sidelined and ignored for weaker non LTDP players although the SRFI had itself included him in the LTDP only 6 months previously.
4. The SRFI has often taken very young players to world events under the guise of future potential and exposure from outside the selection criteria but never applied the rule to my client.

9. That you have not answered any of the questions raised in the meeting with my clients father even though you were aware that because of my clients merit the SRFI was unable to justify his removal from the LTDP in 2007.

10. That in March 2008 the SRFI repeated its insistence on a valid Indian Passport in a pre condition to eligibility and my client went to court through his mother.
11. That in answer to the said writ petition no 3049/ 2008 the SRFI filed a purported LTDP without any details of the minutes of the review meeting wherein my clients name had been removed admittedly on account of his foreign passport.
12. That you were the one person who was very specifically aware that this was a violation as in 2007 you had deplaned Rahul Bakshi a Golfer on the basis of his foreign passport but had been forced to reconsider your decision a mere 15 days later for a subsequent tournament because of the absence of any rule debarring PIO’s.
13. That furthermore because of your background of familiarity with the subject and the fact that you were part of the ministry at the time when the 2007 LTDP  squash review was held , you were personally aware that neither did the SRFI have any rule barring PIO’s /OCI’s from participation nor were they able to clear it at the 2007 meeting.
14. That you were also part of the ministry at the time  when the MYAS chose to exercise its Olympic wild card in favour of an OCI namely Sunita Rao in preference to Rohan Bopanna, an Indian citizen 3 months after the institution of  my clients writ and a mere 2 months from the date of his exclusion from the LTDP.
15. That admittedly the government only framed the purported uniform policy in December 2008 but you never took any action against the SRFI for illegally banning my client from 2 World and 1 Asian Junior Squash Tournament.
16. That you did not take any action against the federation despite knowing fully well, since most of the correspondence of the ex GO was with you, that the SRFI had never taken the results of the Inter State into the reckoning for eligibility of any selection nor had they treated the two  as one. Due to this lapse on your part my client’s father was forced to expend precious resources in order to file an LPA and my client was debarred from the 2008 Senior and Junior Inter State Championships.
17. That even during the period that my client was part of LTDP he was not even aware that a Delhi State training center existed for the purpose of training players who did not live in Chennai where the National squash academy was located.
18. That in fact you were aware that the Players Commitment Contract were only offered to ICL Academy players  because none of the State Training Centers  existed .
19. That as per information received by my client you had knowledge that the supposed state training centers were following a systematic training program with micro cycles being submitted for assessment  but you never took any action despite  numerous complaints   by my client to ascertain why an LTDP player was not being trained and nor did you penalize the erring federation.
20. That it has now come to my clients attention that as far back as 2008 an RTI was filed regarding the purported State Training Centers which went unanswered. It therefore came in appeal to you and you also scuttled the inquiry.
21. That in January 2009 the SRFI admitted in the court of Justices SK Kaul and SK Mishra that they had videotaped my clients match with Paramjit  for a position in the Indian team. The court had ordered the video tape to be preserved and my clients father had written to you asking for independent evaluation of the match as well as for the handing over a copy of the video tape followed  by  reminders, but almost one and a half years later there is still no action.
22. That my client also made it clear to you in the letter that the Government Observer Bhuvneshwari  Kumari was also implicated as she was present during the allegedly rigged match 

and subsequently gave a clean chit to the SRFI.

23. That my client had already complained regarding the GO’s biased attitude towards the federation which she always sought to shield and in fact an a allegation had been made  about a nexus between her and the SRFI in a writ petition  which had been filed in 2008. Since the government had proceeded to reappoint her as a GO despite these allegations it was all the more important to examine the conduct the conduct of the GO in the light of the circumstances surrounding the match recorded on video tape.
24. That my client states that on your own admission   you are in charge of Grievance Redress . Quite apart from the fact that you have never taken any action on any complaint brought to you by my client, a letter dated 31/ 1/ 2008 issued by the SRFI forbidding any player from complaining (which was part of the documents in CWP no 1070 of 2008) and has not been acted upon by the government clearly shows that no redress is being done .
25. That my client has become aware that there are other complaints besides his regarding tainted coaches and the MYAS has itself stated that the purported coach of the SRFI is neither a government employee or nor is he under contract  with SRFI  but chose not to take any action thereby allowing  un meritorious selections.
26. That despite the fact that my client has always been given tough draws with a view to eliminate him in the early rounds. This was illustrated in the Asian Juniors 2009 where he was pitted against the no 3 seed Kamran Khan but the SRFI lodged no protest. Since a protest can only be lodged by a Federation and not an individual player my client was adversely affected by this silence which was not echoed by other countries which protested and got the draws suitably altered. You, as the grievance redress are the watchdog of the government over the federation but chose to take no action.
27.  That my client had approached you for issuing directions to SRFI to allow my client to participate in the  world Juniors  individual event . The rationale  for this was that being a junior all the entries even for open tournaments had to be forwarded by the National Federations of a player and SRFI, as per the order of Mr Justice Sistani , which was accepted by the  Government  the National Federation of my client. The further aspect also was that even though the entry was to be forwarded by the federation in an individual event  the person competes for their personal ranking and not the country. That you deliberately changed the date from the 11^th to the 14^th in order to obtain instructions from the SRFI  which you received on the 13^th. The minutes of the meeting  were made by my clients father and hand delivered to your office on the 16^th prior to the dispatch of your letter to the SRFi on 17^th. You deliberately misled my client’s father by leading him to believe that you were clearing my client for the individual event of the World Juniors. However your actions are belied by the documentation admitted by both parties. As a result of your above actions /omissions my client  has effectively lost 3 years of his sporting career  including his Asian and World ranking besides being demoralized, subjected to name calling and financial losses in fighting 5 rounds of courts cases to date with a prospect of more to follow along with the concomitant opportunity cost of utilizing scarce resources for litigation rather than training. 

Roma Bhagat 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To, 
The Secretary Sports Rahul/Ira Kumar
MYAS J – 501
Shastri Bhawan Som Vihar
Government of India R K Puram
New Delhi – 110001 New Delhi - 22

30/12/2009 Cell- 9873422582


Subject – Violations of compliance requirements for automatic renewal of Government
recognition even after Nov/Dec 2009 circulars

Dear Madam,
Despite numerous complaints ; continuous flaunting of Government Guidelines till today and unanswered RTI’s even years and months after the stipulated period some of the SAI/MYAS officials are still trying to shield the SRFI(Squash Rackets Federation of India)

I am stating some of the immediate violations which prove that the SRFI has no intention to follow the new circulars and have reneged on most of them in the past couple of weeks.

1 AGE FRAUD – A girl named Pankhuri Malhotra was exposed with verifiable evidence last month even though the suspicion focused on her through an anonymous letter sent last year. Though the father confessed to the fraud at a DSA (Delhi Association ) meeting and the G.O and purported National Coach Cyrus were also privy to the information , no action was taken. Her entry was removed from the British Open so that international repercussions could be avoided
but she was allowed to play the DDA Open and Senior Nationals which ended on 19/12/09. Even BI Singh who gave a favourable report to the DSA age cheats and now in the WSF Medical/Anti Doping committee ignored Pankhuri’s case as he had abetted Vijay Goel (DSA) in vindicating Dhampur overage players in the past.
Annexure A( 10 pages)

2 UNACCREDITTED NATIONAL COACHES – The RTI’s state that Cyrus Poncha has not been an appointee of SAI/MYAS or SRFI. All evidence shows that his loyalty and actions were focused to promote TNSRA (Tamil Nadu Squash Association) ISA & ICL (private squash academies with 95% TNSRA players) How can such a person with no contract (RTI’s) serve India and be held accountable when documents and remuneration show his responsibility only to private institutions. A complaint to the JS MYAS (Grievance Redress) about this tainted coach dated 16/7/09 has not brought any response . Ironically the circular of 25/12/09 on Age Fraud evades the issue of the coaches, federations, institutions and parents who are the main perpetrators. A clear case of connivance to absolve the NFS.s from the blame and only penalize minor kids.
It has now been revealed in a spate of RTI’s that Maniam the SRFI Foreign Consultant Coach was contracted under false pretexts and used for other purposes than defined in his contract at the expense of 1 crore 15 lakhs and income tax paid by SAI. Instead of being punished for dereliction of duty his Tripartite Agreement scheduled to be signed in May 2002 was hurriedly reworked with altered goals in May 08, but unsigned by the 1st party SAI ! If this does not reek of collusion what does.

Annexure B( 11 pages)

3 WORLD JUNIORS 2009 – The complaints made against the SRFI by parents and NCPCR for not including the top Delhi girls has been finally answered 5 months later by absurd arguments by the “out termed “Sec Gen Srivats . The same girls who were not good enough have come 5th, 6th and in the last 16 of the Women’s Senior Nationals and a few months ago they were not good enough for exposure for an U-19 event despite 28 empty slots for an MYAS sponsored tournaments at no cost to Government !
Annexure C ( 4 pages)

4 ATTEMPTS TO MURDER – Another attack( 4th) was made on me by the MYAS recognized SRFI just outside the ISA Academy on t 31/7/09. This does not pertain only to the World Juniors but the exposure of the financial frauds, massive disappearances of squash infrastructure and connivance between the SRFI/MYSA and SAI. As usual no action has been taken by the Chennai police but I will not let the matter rest.
Annexure D ( 2 pages)


5 GRIEVANCE REDRESS – Since the JS (MYAS Grievance redress in charge)) has replied in an RTI that there are no norms or separate mechanism for redress and the complainants are sent back to their NFS’s who are in most cases the perpetrators and have no redress system themselves. What does this say about the MYAS attitude towards the players and the non existence of basic norms which gave false hopes to athletes who approached the Ministry in good faith. Till today the GG attested by Justice Geeta Mittal for answering within 8 weeks is not adhered to and nor has the SRFI instituted the same. Karm’s video tape has not been obtained from the SRFI despite informing all the sports departments, probably because it will expose the collusion of the GO, SRFI selection committee MYAS and SAI from shielding one of the most corrupt, vindictive and non complaint federations in history.
Annexure E( 5 pages)

6 SELECTIONS – The basic criteria for selections laid down by the GG have been done away with and inter changed by 38 different ones to be used selectively to chose the pre determined players.
Annexure F(11 pages)

7 SENIOR NATIONALS DELHI 12/09 – No ranking system has been implemented despite a government order. Only the Women’s Senior Nationals was converted into a WISPA (World International Squash Professional Association) event but none of the competitors, press or SRFI websites carried that. The fact that no seeding was given on a local or WISPA basis resulted in Surbhi Mishra pulling out after her draw had been changed. Surprisingly the men’s event was not made a PSA.

Annexure G ( 6 pages)

8 SENIOR NATIONALS INTER STATE DELHI 12/09 – The blatant violations of the team placement norms have been broken by the newly appointed WSF (World Squash Federation ) Championship member Mannan Mashruwala. A few months ago he followed absolutely different norms but now favoured the TNSRA team. It is evident that since all these maligned officials have crossed 8 years of their expired terms and thus Ramachandran is inducting them into the World arena so that he can still control India/Indian players indirectly.
Annexure H ( 6 pages)

9 GOVERNMENT OBSERVER – There was no GO present for the Nationals thus making a mockery of the proceedings and as such she cannot make any observations about no ranking , direct last minute entries, change of draws, WISPA , Inter State collusion and all processes altered to benefit Tamil Nadu.
Annexure I

10 SRFI COMMITTEE – The site today shows the old committee with Ramachandran still Sec Gen . The Junior/Senior Nationals draws and results are also not mentioned. There is no SRFI ranking but the same followed by all others like European, PSA and WISPA are mentioned.
Annexure J ( 5 pages)


11 CONTINUED VICTIMIZATION OF KARM – Karm was stopped on false pretexts from playing for Delhi in Inter State despite being no 3 in the A team. A notice cannot be sent to a minor under “ order 32 rule – read in conjunction with the juvenile justice act & Section 11 of the Contract Act “ Secondly the SRFI have stated under oath that the Nationals and Inter State is one tournament and so they should have tried to stop him from playing the individual event. The whole case has been referred to the NCPCR but in between I read your circulars and decided to give priority to the larger cause.
The SRFI Sec Gen Srivats has in his letter dated16/7/09 to the JS stated that the Indian Nationals were always closed for the past decade. I am giving a chart of evidence which shows that even the NCC Maniam’s daughter played the Nationals between 2002 to 2005 and trained at the ICL Academy ! Her surname was misleading too as she spelt it as Mani !
Annexure K ( 11 pages)

12 UNANSWERED RTI - 6 unanswered RTI’s/ appeals have been attached.
Annexure L ( 8 pages)


13 WEBSITE – The September 29, 2008 MYAS circular has been ignored by the SRFI and they have not complied either with the information or adherence to a fair selection process.
Annexure M (3 pages)


This is just a tip of the ice berg. In the next couple of days a detailed report with documentary evidence will be given to the MYAS so that they will have irrefutable proof that not only does the SRFI deserves to be disaffiliated but their officials need to charged with victimization, financial misappropriation and non compliance of all Government Guidelines. Is the MYAS waiting for another Rathore / Ruchika incident before it finally decides to stem this regressive regime which has destroyed Indian squash at the behest of one megalomaniac ‘s dream to promote his personal academy at the expense of the entire country.


Yours sincerely





Rahul Kumar


CC Deputy Director MYAS (with Annexures)

-------------------------------------------

12/2/2009

To,
The Secretary General
Indian Olympic Association
Asian Olympic Committee
New Delhi -22

Subject – Dismissal of the SRFI selection/seeding committee.

Dear Sir ,
the Indian squash fraternity has been decimated by a common seeding cum selection committee which has been active for over 12 years of non adherence to any rules. The only criteria to represent India is belonging to the ICL Academy in Chennai and signing the Players Commitment Contract. Two generation of over 50 talented players have given up competitive squash as their future was pre determined by this regressive , parochial and nepotistic committee whose only aim was to please the SRFI boss Ramachandran irrespective to the losses suffered by the players or the country.

This SRFI committee has consistently broken all the rules and norms followed by the World Squash Federation , Asian Squash Federation , Commonwealth , Olympic Committee and the Indian Government Guidelines. They have declared in court that a ranking system cannot be followed , which is the main criteria for recognition by the bodies mentioned above.

They have not followed their own LTDP which has been approved by the MYAS and got them funding. They have no grievance cell and a compromised Government Observer who has served their own organization for the past 11 years!

The national coach is an employee of a private academy ICL. He plays, recruits,coaches and promotes only the ICL/Tamil Nadu players. The consultant coaches contract is not being revealed as he not promoting squash in India but only in the ICL Academy. He is anti National and proved it by giving some deserving Indian players the worst draws despite a court order. All allegations can be proved by documentary evidence.

Incidentally the Secretary Sports MYAS asked me to make an official complaint about the SRFI to you. The squash fraternity demands an immediate time bound enquiry into the functioning of the SRFI as the one by MP Ganesh was motivated.

Finally the SRFI has brought the IOA, CWG into disrepute by challenging the eligibility of the players entered by your office for the Olympics, Asian and CWG Games.


Yours sincerely

Rahul Kumar

7/2/2009

To,
Ms. Bhubneshwari Kumari
(Government Observer Squash)
20, Aurangzeb Road
New Delhi 110011

Subject – Asian Junior trials for Karm Kumar

Dear Madam,

I was very surprised to see you for Karms selection process as Meherwan Daruwala was supposed to oversee this trials and I had telephonically explained to him the difficulties that we were going to face during the trials. He supposedly had to go to Gujrat and I guess you were called.

Since you were not very amicable nor interested at the selection venue to the problems being faced by Karm I have no option but to give our protests in writing. Karm’s first match was conducted by a biased referee Srikant, but despite my protests on the blatant wrong decisions against Karm to the SRFI committee members, they were in vain. When I approached you I was rebuked by “don’t bother me “. Thus I am making all the adversities faced by Karm official so that you can reply to them in your capacity of a reluctant Government Observer.

Since the SRFI lawyers on behest of their clients did not include Karm in the initial 8 day trials on the pretext of holding special trials for him, they curtailed his performance by the following

1. The AC was not put on for even a short period so that the conditions would have been less hot & humid as Karm came from Delhi with an up to 20 degrees temperature variation.

2. Karm was supposed to play only 1 match a day but was forced to play 2 of the fittest opponents in adverse conditions on the same day. Ironically the AC was put on for the tournament .
 

3. Initially Karm was supposed to play a match on the 15th morning too but it was cancelled by Major Maniam quoting a rest day for the Indian players while the foreigners were all practicing. This led to missing out on 1 day of acclimatization by Karm and he had a dehydration & nausea problem on the 14th against Ramit after the 2 tough matches on the 13th and thus could not play to the best of his ability. This fact has been substantiated by his performance against the 3rd seed Kamran Khan under AC conditions and with a days rest.
 

4. The refereeing by Srikant of Karm’s match was witnessed by you. There was no umpire and despite my request that Srikant was bias Rajiv Reddy refused to change him. When I appealed to Major Maniam, who only came after the 1st game was over he stated that since the match had started nothing could be done. When I told him I had protested before the match and asked for Bala who was the other referee assigned by SRFI, Rajiv had refused. Then Maniam had no comment. Aditya Jagtap also volunteered to referee but was refused. Thus Karm had to play a ICL player with a bias ICL referee. The next day the Delhi High Court ordered Srikant not to referee Karm’s matches but the damage was done. What are your comments on Shrikants refereeing . Have you made a report to the MYAS or given your views to the SRFI. Was he fair, biased or incompetent? The result of this match was the most crucial to be selected in the Indian team.

Please reply as soon as possible as your comments are required for many ongoing enquiries.

Yours sincerely

Rahul Kumar
J-501, SOM VIHAR,

SANGAM MARG,

R.K. PURAM, NEW DELHI  110022

Copy to:

• Secretary Sports MYAS
• CWG Committee
• DG SAI
• Meherwan Daruwala Govt. Observer

30/12/2008 

To,
The Secretary Sports
MYAS J – 501
Shastri Bhawan
Government of India
New Delhi – 110001

Subject – Victimization of Karm by the SRFI by altering global norms of sports and OCI’s/PIO’s

Dear Sir,
the Sports Ministry has unwittingly been dragged into formulating regressive policies just because the ex General Secretary of the SRFI Mr. N. Ramachandran wanted to insure that our son would not be able to play National or International tournaments. The reasons for this are that we have been one of the few people who have been exposing the malpractices of the SRFI through complaints to the MYAS, Government Observers , RTI’s, media and writ petitions in the Delhi High Courts. Despite numerous threats to me and our son we have weathered the barrage of discrimination against my son in the form of bad draws , entries not excepted , targeted in refereeing decisions, wrong scores published & sidelined from representing the country. The irony is that Mr. Ramachandran had to stoop to blatant lies to try to debar him and thus committed perjury by false testimonies in court. We have filed perjury against a couple of them and they are being forwarded to the criminal court. The MYAS lawyers have all the documents pertaining to these facts.

It is very unfortunate that despite numerous complaints since 1996 against the functioning of the SRFI no action was ever taken against it. The only enquiry in 2006 initiated due to my complaints was conducted in a few hours by Mr MP Ganesh who had only been admonished for financial mismanagement to the tune of 2.5 crore during his tenure at SAI Bangalore. That was probably the reason for the rejection of his plea for extension and his last act before retirement was a clean chit to the SRFI. His report was so biased and shallow that the MYAS did not send it to me, the GO or take any action on it for one year and in between Mr Ganesh had retired and thus would not be answerable. I have over 50 documents to prove that his report was a cover up and many of the state squash associations would demand a new enquiry on the lines of the Monica Devi one. The squash fraternity would be very grateful if you could read the report of the ex GO Brig. Manchanda - the counter by SRFI & the final reply to that before the GO was summarily dismissed on their instigation, as he had exposed the extent to which the SRFI could stoop to save their skin. There are probably more cases against the SRFI than against all the Federations combined. The same applies to the complaints sent against them and the MYAS ‘s RTI’s reply has conveniently lost the ones sent before 2005. Mr Ramachandran also has the maximum amount of titles than any other NF bigwigs, and thus he can counter and extinguish any complaint at the onset. He is the WSF, ASF & Tamil Nadu Squash Rackets Association President. He is a VP of the IOA & TN Olympic Association. He is a CWG committee member. His status in SAI is unclear but he was in the executive committee, as in SDAT (Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu) As the Ex Dir of ICL, the TNSRA squash center & National coaches are under him. This exposes the farce of him resigning as the GS of the SRFI as he still controls Indian squash through his posts in TNSRA, ICL , SDAT & his son & wife and coaches who are spread among these associations. Besides these he also represents triathlon, swimming, cycling , hockey etc through different official posts.

Since the background has been clarified the present scenario is that since my son’s eligibility for all international representation is positive and the only way he could stop him was to challenge his status. But Justice Sistani’s judgment was a draw back as it allowed all Indian origin players of all age groups to represent India. Thus he embarked on a regressive strategy to play the patriotic card to get all PIO’s/OCI’s barred , and put the onus on the MYAS to do his bidding without exposing his role. He even went to the extent of forgetting that all the World bodies he represents allow alien passport holders under certain conditions to represent other countries. How he influenced the Ministry of Indian Overseas Affairs to change the status of over a million NRI’s by motivated pseudo jingoism, just to spite a 17 year old minor is beyond comprehension! The consequences of these actions will be court cases on the rule of estoppels – non adherence to MYAS’s own guidelines , Olympic Charter etc, apart from our progressive nation sending conflicting signals to the world and people of Indian origin. The greater controversy will be a breach of trust to the conditions printed on the OCI/PIO card. Now by removing financial benefits and introducing negative clauses these cards will become glorified permanent visas , the clarifications of which will become mandatory due to the present actions.

Does the MYAS really want to send such a retrograde signal to the World on the eve of the Commonwealth Games ! All famous NRI’s in the past have been honoured and promised more freedom and probable full dual nationality. In all other fields foreign students, companies, equipment etc are competing with Indians on our home turf. Does the MYAS really want to open a floodgate of litigations and antagonize top players who have migrated to India , in retrospect, on false promises. If only the MYAS /SAI grievance cells had worked in the interests of the players and not the federations this would not have come to loggerheads. If the players complaints had got a sympathetic hearing and an effort had been made to resolve their pressing grievances all this would not have occurred. The fact is that the consequence of any complaint is it being forwarded to the concerned federation ,which ensures that the complainant is so rigorously victimized for having the audacity to complain that he does not repeat it or follow up. The MYAS deems the case as closed and the respective federation is absolved.

An interesting comment by one of the senior MYAS officers was that if we follow the Government Guidelines all the Sports federations will be in violation. I replied that is not our problem and the solution is to investigate and disaffiliate the worst offender, which will send the correct signal to the others. Thus a new interactive enquiry should be conducted through a respectable senior judge etc based on the earlier unanswered complaints and present grievances with inputs from both sides till their logical conclusions which is the exposure of the guilty party.

The status of our son on the eligibility list is by far above the rest, as he is one of the only ones who was born in India, is domiciled here for the last 17 years , has represented Delhi from 2003 to 2007 till the SRFI stopped him in 2008. In all games ranging from Tennis, football , cricket to athletics a person born in India and resident of a city for over 3 years is allowed to represent his state or city. They even deprived him of that by lying that the Nationals & Inter State are one tournament. Does he need an Indian passport to represent Delhi too ! His British passport & OCI entitle him to Asian & CWG games for which surprisingly US passport holders & residents have been allowed. He has never trained in the supposedly National training center in Chennai , never been called for camps which he was entitled too , nor were any fitness tests conducted on him according to their own LTDP. He did not get any of the privileges accorded to him and his name was put on their CWG list on their own. He was never called to their clandestine state training centers and nor was his performance monitored. Despite having represented India in the Asian Juniors in 2006 & no change of rules by the ASF he was not allowed for the selection trials. An eligibility chart has been attached for your reference All his success have been despite victimization by the SRFI and the only financial implications for us were spending more money on litigation against the SRFI instead of using that money for training him & sending him abroad for exposure. Karm is the only player with a foreign passport who has only played abroad once while his counterparts with Indian passports have played numerous tournaments abroad. Despite that he has been beating full time players who have trained under the wings of the SRFI Academy by many National coaches. Unlike the tennis players he has no abode abroad or in the UK as he has never even visited that country. Instead the UK rules bar him from representing them as he has not lived there for a period of 3 years and nor has he played their ranking tournaments. Now after a positive judgment from the court the MYAS wants to continue the agenda of the SRFI to victimize my son and make him stateless and ineligible to represent any country , state or city !

This is one man’s vendetta against a minor hoping that by barring Karm and forcing him to go abroad his parents will give up. What he doesn’t know that this is a crusade and we have a great deal of supporters and it will not stop till squash is cleaned up and all players get an equal right to prosper. This person who holds offices in the IOA , CWG and is the President of the Asian and World Federation does not even know the eligibility rules of any of them ! To escape being exposed and avoid the ignominy if Karm would be found eligible by all four bodies , he has decided to get India’s policy changed so that he may evade the perjury charges by stating he had prior information of the MYAS policies.

I hope the MYAS will take all the facts into consideration and not debar the players already selected in various programs and consider reversing this policy as it will alienate people of Indian ancestry abroad and send conflicting signals to the IOC and other world sport governing bodies. ( EXPLANATORY CHARTS ATTACHED )

Yours sincerely


Rahul Kumar

J-501, SOM VIHAR,

SANGAM MARG,

R.K. PURAM, NEW DELHI  110022