Indian rowing has fallen victim, unwittingly, to the cat-and-mouse game being played over the implementation of the National Sports Code by various entities. One of the fallouts of the Rahul Mehra vs Union of India 2022 case, still pending in the Delhi High Court, is that the government cannot release funds to the national sports federations (NSFs).
There is no bar, however, on providing support to the athletes directly. As a result, the sports ministry had stopped funding the NSFs for holding camps and other activities.
The situation has reached a critical point where the Rowing Federation of India (RFI) has taken an unprecedented decision of not sending a team to the Asian Championships, to be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from October 10 to 14. “We are not going to send a team without a camp of at least four months,” RFI president Rajlaxmi Singh Deo said. “We sent a team to the Asian Junior (U-19 & U-23) Championships (in Shenyang, China) two weeks back, and we finished ninth overall with just one bronze (in U-19 men’s single scull). It was one of the worst performances by an Indian team. In 2022, the RFI had funded five junior athletes and even then they won two silver,” a deeply anguished Rajlaxmi said.
The last time India didn’t send a team to the Asian Championships was in 2016. That was when the Army Rowing Node, which provides the cream of the Indian talent, and the RFI were at loggerheads. Rajlaxmi said court order seemed to have forced a change in strategy on the part of the ministry.
