Indians For Guns

Indians shoot themselves in the foot

Ajai Masand

The Hindustan Times - New Delhi, February 19, 2007

Indian marksmen could miss the first two World Cups this year if the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) and the Sports Ministry do not sort out their problems shortly.

It is learnt that the Sports Ministry has written to NRAI president Digvijay Singh saying that if the contentious issue of hosting the inter-university shooting championships is not sorted out, the government will not clear any foreign tours of the NRAI.

Confirming this, NRAI secretary-general Baljeet Singh Sethi said that the letter had been written before the National Games in Guwahati. A meeting between the NRAI and Ministry officials was scheduled for Monday but got postponed. The meeting is most likely to take place on Wednesday.

In the event of the NRAI and the Ministry not arriving at a solution, the shooters will miss the shotgun World Cup in St. Domino (West Indies) from March 18 to 25 and the pistol and rifle World Cup at Fort Bennings (USA) from March 31 to April 7. "Indian women rifle shooters, especially Tejaswini Sawant and Suma Shirur, stand a good chance of qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the World Cup in Fort Bennings," said Sethi.

He added that both the girls had shot exceptionally well at the National Games in Guwahati.

This is perhaps the first time when the World Cup-bound squads are facing such anxious moments. "We are hopeful that things will be sorted out amicably," said Sethi, and added that if the issue lingered on for some more time, getting dates for procuring visas from the US Embassy could become difficult.

The camp for the two World Cups is already in progress at the Karni Singh Ranges. The Ministry is piqued that the conduct of the inter-university shooting championships by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) has become a bother.

While the NRAI wants to conduct it in a 'professional' way, the AIU is opposed to the NRAI interference.

The issue boiled over last year when the Ministry had to intervene in January 2006 and say that, "It is within the domain of the AIU to organise the inter-university tournaments. NRAI will not organise, directly or indirectly, any university tournament... NRAI should confine itself to sending its technical officials". This year, however, the issue again reared its head before the inter-varsity in Bikaner from January 10 to 13, with the NRAI issuing letters to all state association not to send their shooters to Bikaner, failing which they would be debarred from taking part in National shooting championship.

For once, the Sports Ministry seems to be doing a good job whittling the NRAI bullies down to size! The NRAI wants to conduct Inter-University shooting championships in a "professional way?" Even my dog would have a belly laugh if he were told this. AT the last nationals, they did not get a single newspaper of consequence to cover the event.

There is a sad aspect to this in that some of our fine shooters might suffer if the government decided not to send them for future tournaments outside the coutnry. Perhaps, there could be a middle path in cutting the officials down to size and not punishing shooters for no fault of their own. As a start, there could be more careful audits of NRAI officials' expenses and an independent official from the shooting community (a shooter like Jaspal Rana with a knowledge of both how to shoot well and of the functioning of the NRAI?) to keep an eye on the babus who seek to stifle a great sport.

In fact, I see Sethi's remarks about the NRAI manipulating this to not allow shooters to compete in tournaments abroad because he and his cronies are not sent on junkets at government expense as the most perfect example of the rot in this organisation. I hope the government sees this as it is and takes action against these officials for damaging our sport instead of fostering it.

Thanks, Abhijeet, for posting this crucial piece of information!

mundaire";p="13020 wrote: NRAI issuing letters to all state association not to send their shooters to Bikaner, failing which they would be debarred from taking part in National shooting championship.

In other words , my way or highway !

Astonishingly if somebody asks NRAI to organize anything other than the Nationals, he would be shooed away and here they are hellbent on gatecrashing !

Absolutely correct, Sujay! This is a dog in the manger attitude of the NRAI and one that the powers that be need to definitely take into account.

Talked to Ajay Masand :

I wrote :
i hope u can help us in raising voice against NRAI and other govt. organisations. We are a group who is trying to lift the ban on import of arms & ammunition by filing a PIL in the supreme court. I hope u can help us a lot ?

Ajay's reply :
I'll do my best to help you guys out. You can write to me confidentially or meet me with the relevant documents. I'll make a story out of it.
Do keep in touch

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I am inviting ajay to join IFG... i think he can help us a lot in raising our voice.

Danish