Young Talent denied a shot at the Guwahati National Games

[Yasho]

Mehul/penpusher,
If luck is on IFG side, Naveen Jindal, MP from Kurukshetra, Haryana is one gentleman who could be of immense help. He is the same business tycoon who took the issue of the right of every Indian to display the Indian Flag on all days of the year, be it at home or office or factory.
Apart from being well connected and as mentioned earlier, he is a skeet shooter and just the other day became Indias first parliamentrian to win a medal at the National Games underway at Guwahati.
He understands the problems being faced by the sports fraternity.
He is based at Delhi and his office is located at Bhikaji Cama Place.
He runs Jindal Steel and Power.
He is also in confrontation with Chautala over HOA.
Good Luck.

[mundaire]

He is also in confrontation with Chautala over HOA.

HOA?? What's that??

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[mehulkamdar]

Yasho,

Never knew what luck was from experience - if I did, I wouldn;t be working, 15 hours or more a day. Your suggestion is a good one but how do we achieve this by hard work instead of waiting for lady luck to step in? All suggestions on involving people who would be helpful to our cause are most welcome. We need to figure out how to bring them in. Any suggestions from your side on this?

Cheers!

[Yasho]

Mundaire,
Hi.
HOA : Haryana Olympic Association.
Hope that clears the dust.
Keep it up.

[mundaire]

Thanks for the clarification Yasho Is Mr. Chautala still in charge of the HOA?

There is also a semi-defunct Haryana State Rifle Association if I am not mistaken... they were to acquire land (in Faridabad??) for a shooting range, wonder what happened to that...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[Yasho]

Mehul,
Hi.
Yes, you are right.
Its easy to blah blah n blah.
Well, as I mentioned, Naveen Jindal will have to be contacted at his office in Delhi, particulars of which I have already mentioned. I guess, he wont be available straight away but an appointment can be taken well in advance thru his PA. If possible, a brief may also be sent to him to allow him to think over the matter before a meeting actually takes place.
Our voice, if all is justified, can be brought to the notice of all those who matter, thru NJ, MP.
Now you please take over.
All the best.

[Yasho]

Abhijeet,
(Got it right this time.)

Well, the dispute between Chautala and Jindal over HOA is in the courts with the first ruling in favour of Chautala.

Nothing surprising if that State rifle association is still defunct. Thats the outcome of most sports bodies all over India as no support/motivation/encouragement is given to sports/sportspersons.
We as a nation are fast taking to materialism and consumerism. Everyone is participating in a rat race to make a quick buck. Parents will go all the way to spend thousands to pamper their kids with play stations, cell fones and other latest gizmos but wont give a damn when it comes to building sportsmanship.

Once a child/student was asked the following:
What games do you play?
He replied:
VDO games and cricket.
He was asked with whom do you play cricket?
He replied:
With the servant at home.
Now imagine, a game involving over 10 players being played by just two.

Parents will flaunt the latest wheels, overseas trips etc. but majority of these who can afford to spend on sports equipment, will shy from encouraging their children to take to sports.

One major reason is lack of infrastructure and another is no awareness.

Hope things improve with forums like IFG who are willing to take up issues with a cause.

AMEN.

[cooldude]

Abhijeet,
(Got it right this time.)

Well, the dispute between Chautala and Jindal over HOA is in the courts with the first ruling in favour of Chautala.

Nothing surprising if that State rifle association is still defunct. Thats the outcome of most sports bodies all over India as no support/motivation/encouragement is given to sports/sportspersons.
We as a nation are fast taking to materialism and consumerism. Everyone is participating in a rat race to make a quick buck. Parents will go all the way to spend thousands to pamper their kids with play stations, cell fones and other latest gizmos but wont give a damn when it comes to building sportsmanship.

Once a child/student was asked the following:
What games do you play?
He replied:
VDO games and cricket.
He was asked with whom do you play cricket?
He replied:
With the servant at home.
Now imagine, a game involving over 10 players being played by just two.

Parents will flaunt the latest wheels, overseas trips etc. but majority of these who can afford to spend on sports equipment, will shy from encouraging their children to take to sports.

One major reason is lack of infrastructure and another is no awareness.

Hope things improve with forums like IFG who are willing to take up issues with a cause.

AMEN.

Sports bodies should be left to sportsmen related to that particular discipline to look after because they are the ones that know all the nitty gritty about it with the Govt. just coordinating and acting on their advise. But, alas! The politicians have an uncanny way of becoming heads of most of these bodies, so what do you expect? Regarding infrastructure, definitely their is an acute shortage of it. Our's is a country one of the richest in Human resources but more than 70% of the manpower remains untapped in the rural areas. There is no long term policy of the Govt. regarding sports. Look at China. You have an example just next door. If the country really wants to be a super power in sports then you have to catch them young and train them with the idea of yielding results 15yrs. down the line. Afterall, Rome was not built in a day.

[cooldude]

Mehul,
Hi.
Yes, you are right.
Its easy to blah blah n blah.
Well, as I mentioned, Naveen Jindal will have to be contacted at his office in Delhi, particulars of which I have already mentioned. I guess, he wont be available straight away but an appointment can be taken well in advance thru his PA. If possible, a brief may also be sent to him to allow him to think over the matter before a meeting actually takes place.
Our voice, if all is justified, can be brought to the notice of all those who matter, thru NJ, MP.
Now you please take over.
All the best.

I myself was a Skeet shooter but have not shot in the last 15 years as most of my time is spent in Bihar but my son is shooting now so I keep going to the Karni Singh range, off and on and know most of the shooters personally. Rao Iderjit Singh was my contemporay and is the Minister of State at the centre for Foreign Affairs. His daughter, Aarti is the current India No.1 in Skeet(women). I am sure he will be more than willing to help and we can talk to Naveen too. Randhir Singh, Secretary General IOA is my mother's 1st cousin, K.P. Singh Deo, President RAO(Rowing) is my mother's 1st Cosusin. If required, we can take their help and even Suresh Kalmadi, President IOA. So, let me know what is to be done and how to go about it and if required I can have a question raised in the Lok Sabha regarding this matter in the coming session.

[mehulkamdar]

Cooldude,

As they say, a thousand mile journey begins with the first step. As you have relatives and contacts within the government in places that could help, draft the petition first and make all of them recipients of it. As I have said before, YOU have to initiate this as an affected party. As a group, we shall sign on to your petition and get you publicity. After watching the response or lack of it to this, we shall look at the next step to take.

Until the first step is taken - by you - there is little that the group could do. We do have other plans for the group but they involve too many different proposals all of which are in the process of being developed and refined before they could be implemented.

[cooldude]

Cooldude,

As they say, a thousand mile journey begins with the first step. As you have relatives and contacts within the government in places that could help, draft the petition first and make all of them recipients of it. As I have said before, YOU have to initiate this as an affected party. As a group, we shall sign on to your petition and get you publicity. After watching the response or lack of it to this, we shall look at the next step to take.

Until the first step is taken - by you - there is little that the group could do. We do have other plans for the group but they involve too many different proposals all of which are in the process of being developed and refined before they could be implemented.

Cooldude,

As they say, a thousand mile journey begins with the first step. As you have relatives and contacts within the government in places that could help, draft the petition first and make all of them recipients of it. As I have said before, YOU have to initiate this as an affected party. As a group, we shall sign on to your petition and get you publicity. After watching the response or lack of it to this, we shall look at the next step to take.

Until the first step is taken - by you - there is little that the group could do. We do have other plans for the group but they involve too many different proposals all of which are in the process of being developed and refined before they could be implemented.

Thanx and will definitely act on your advise but if it is not asking for too much then I would request you all to visit "merinews.com" and post your comments on an article written by me under the same heading under the sports category.

[cooldude]

Hi! Mehul.
On second thoughts, don't u think it will be better to have it (petition) drafted by a lawyer or something?

[cooldude]

Guys! I have drafted a letter which I was thinking of sending to various people at various levels in the Govt. Please go through it and let me know if it's all right.:-


To.






Sub: Re: Bureaucratic hurdles in the way of upcoming sportsmen.

Sir.
This is a recent incident related to my son, Arimardan Shahi and I am sure it is not an exception but the rule. The country is going to play host to the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and is making a strong bid for the Olympics too. I am sure this incident will bring to the fore the hypocrisy of it all. My son has recently started ‘Trap’ shooting. Shooting is a highly specialized and technical sport. Since there is a ban on import of weapons until you reach a certain level and these weapons are not available in India, the only option is to borrow from someone who has got the weapon and use it and hope that you reach the stage where you can import your own. My son has managed to qualify for an import in the junior category in the recently concluded National Shooting Championships held at Delhi where he secured the 9th position. His cousin who is current India No.6 and who uses a Sports Authority of India weapon himself, was kind enough to lend his weapon to my son for such time till he managed to get one of his own. My son was selected to represent Uttaranchal State in the ongoing National Games at Guwahati. My nephew’s license is valid for the State of Delhi only. Hence to carry the weapon beyond Delhi, permission was required by the D.C.P. licensing whose office is at Defense Colony. My nephew, after getting permission from the S.A.I to carry their weapon, went to the D.C.P. to ask permission to carry the S.A.I. weapon for himself and his own weapon for my son. The D.C.P. granted permission for the S.A.I. weapon but flatly refused to give him permission for his own weapon even after being explained the reason for it and no amount of requesting made him change his mind.. Infact he said quite a few things which I would not like to quote here. The net result was that my son had to leave the gun behind, with which he had been practicing. He managed to borrow a weapon from the Assam State rifle Association on the first day of the Trap Shooting Competition and since the weapon was not available the next day he borrowed one from another shooter and shot on the final day. He could have managed an individual medal had he been allowed to carry his weapon because he was consistently shooting around 20 out of 25 but with a new weapon which he had not used at all he shot drastically though even after all the setbacks he managed to contribute enough to get a Team Silver medal for his State with the other two team members. On what grounds was my nephew not allowed to carry his own weapon? Is this how the Govt. wants to promote sports? Is there any reason to be surprised why Indians perform so badly in International events? I am attaching an article written by me for a News Portal on the Inter-Net known as ‘merinews.com’ which is self explanatory. Need I say more than this, that a serious introspection is required by the Govt. and a total overhaul of the system if the country is to reach anywhere in sports at an international level. What a shame that a country of one billion plus performs so badly at the international level but it is not the country but the system that fails to produce champions. For my son, it is an opportunity lost forever and I do not know if my writing this letter is going to make an iota of difference or not but I do not know what else to do.

[mundaire]

Arindam,

I have spoken to a journalist friend of mine today and she has promised to speak with their sports correspondent regarding this story. I will update you on PM as things develop - meanwhile please send me your numbers on PM so we can be in touch on phone.

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[mehulkamdar]

Hello Arindam,

Thanks for presenting the facts here. penpusher is our most experienced resource person in legal matters and he would draft the petition as he has assured as soon as he has some time. We have other members here who are lawyers but they are not regular due to their professional engagements.

What I meant was that the basic petition would have to be posted by you on Petitions Online with a list of recipients whom you would like it to go to, including all of the gentlemen whom you have talked about. In the meantime, Abhijeet has done the superb thing of getting a journalist to work on your son's unfortunate experience - do get in touch with him and talk to the gentleman/lady concerned. That would get additional publicity. If the journalist also mentions the petition in the newspaper, it would be a huge boost.

I am happy that this is taking shape in a positive way. It was, after all, unfortunate incidents in history that caused a lot of positive work to be done, whether it was the two South African officers who threw Mahatma Gandhi out of a train, or whether it was the throwing of a black schoolgirl off a bus in the USA. Let us hope that your son will not have to suffer such indignity ever again in his dreams of shooting for India due to our efforts.

Cheers!