Blame everyone but me: How Paralympic association president Tomar defended himself

(Editor’s note: This piece was originally published on 23 March but is being republished in light of President of Paralympic Committee of India, Rajesh Tomar, being suspended from his post) If you found out that your athletes are being treated with the kind of scorn that you reserve for a stray dog, then what you do? In an ideal situation, you would take the relevant association to task and fight for their rights. You would ensure they got everything that they needed to perform at their best. You would run from pillar to post to get them their due. You would, in the very least, share their pain. But instead of doing any of this, here’s the shameless thing that the President of the Paralympic Committee of India, Rajesh Tomar did: He chose not to call up the Sports Ministry or the people in charge. Instead, he called up the athletes and did not even try to comfort them. He plainly asked them to praise the very organisation that is failing them when the media comes calling. [caption id=“attachment_2168783” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] PTI image.[/caption] The President, who has a plush air conditioned office, a car and proper meals for lunch and dinner didn’t think it was important to organise the same for the athletes who can travelled the length and breadth of the country (on their own expense) to take part in the annual meet. The bare minimum needed by these athletes was “habitable” conditions. In an abhorrent lack of preparation, the athletes didn’t even have beds, running water or bathroom facilities at their place of accommodation. Instead of fighting for the rights of the differently-abled athletes, Mr Tomar instead has completely absolved himself of all blame. “I as the president cannot go everywhere to handle the organisational aspect of the events taking place in the country.” That was the response of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) President Rajesh Tomar when asked by Firstpost about the organisational fiasco of the 15th National Para-Athletic Championships. Well, one might be tempted to ask that if the president can’t then who can? As usual the Sports Ministry and the PCI have launched subsequent “inquiries” into the incident wherein the Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has sought a report from the organisers and promised to take action within 24 hours. This is nothing new. Each time there is an organisational ‘screw up" there are always subsequent “inquiries” launched to look into the matter. Is it just a placebo offering to the disgruntled athletes? Or are they taking this issue as seriously as the Sporting federation should is still the question of the hour. Be it the doping scandals or the  eligibility rules there is always an “enquiry committee” set up. The president was apparently baffled and deeply disturbed at the condition of the athletes’ quarters for the event. “If you don’t have the funds to organise the event, they should have cancelled it,” he added. Now this is the same president who in the past has moaned about the lack of funds available to his organisation and how they are forced to manage over 70 state federations with a lowly budget of just 2 crores from the Sports Ministry. Shouldn’t he then take an even greater level of interest in a national event to ensure everything goes according to plan? Or is the normal Indian “chalta hai” attitude going to come into play? Shockingly, the organisational committee of the National Para-Athletic Championships has no proper identification. There is no mention of the committee on the PCI website or any report released by them. So who is responsible for this mess? Anyone but the president it seems. According to Tomar, the organisational committee headed by Mr Satyanarayan, the Director of Competition, is completely responsible for the event along with the Uttar Pradesh Paralympic Association. “Since they are responsible entirely for sourcing out the funds for the event to take place, I am not privy to the organisational workings,” said Tomar. “I don’t know what went wrong, I am deeply disturbed,” quipped Tomar. But it is the lack of co-ordination between the President and the organising committee that is truly disturbing. Video footage showed the athletes crawling up staircases without any help, sleeping on the floor in cramped rooms– sometimes even 10-12 people crushed into one room and unhygienic food being served to them. This, too, is disturbing. Some athletes like Sharad Kumar, a gold medalist at the high jump event at the recent Para-Asian Games held in 2014, even resorted to getting their own hotel room after looking at the facilities provided. “It was impossible to stay there, I shared the cost of a hotel room with another participating athlete,” says Sharad. When asked who the organising committee reports to, Mr Tomar backtracked and insisted that the “committee does not report to me, it is independent.” And then, he promptly said goodbye and kept the phone down. His attitude shows just why para-athletes in India continue to languish in the depths of despair. And that is the saddest part of all. If the Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, Sarbananda Sonowal, truly wants to take action – he should begin by directing his anger at Tomar. That would be taking some much-needed responsibility.