Suspended Indian Boxing Federation members squabble over meeting

New Delhi: It is all set to be a full-blown revolt but the Indian Boxing Federation’s state units have still invited the suspended body’s President and Secretary General to attend their October 6 meeting despite the duo’s attempts to stop the gathering from taking place. Suspended internationally for almost a year, the Indian Boxing Federation’s state units have decided to meet here on October 6 to form an ad-hoc body to approve a new constitution and finalise the date of a Special General Meeting. [caption id=“attachment_1130931” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The IBF has to adopt a new constitution and hold fresh elections. Getty Images[/caption] The ad-hoc committee is expected to be either three or five-member. Out of the 35 IBF units, comprising 31 states and four Boards, 24 are expected to attend the meeting which will try to find a way forward. But IBF Secretary General Rajesh Bhandari has sent out a mail to the state associations, asking them not to attend the meeting, calling it “illegal”. “I suggest Mr Bhandari and IBF President Abhishek Matoria should attend this meeting because it is basically an exchange of ideas. If they can convince the units about their plans to end the impasse, then they will be with them,” IBF Vice President Brig PK Muralidharan Raja, who is backing the state units, said today. “It is a collective decision of the state units because everybody wants to know what is the way forward. India has been suspended for a year now and if we don’t work out a solution than our boxers won’t be allowed anywhere,” he added. The IBF Secretary General, on the other hand, has set aside October 20 as the date for a General body meeting that too if the International Boxing Association approves the IBF Constitution which has been amended to make it compliant with the AIBA statute. “Even on that front, none of the state units are aware as to what the IBF has agreed to, there is no clarity. The state units have been completely ignored in the entire process. The October 20 meet that Mr Bhandari has proposed is subject to the constitution being approved,” explained Brig Raja. “None of the state units are averse to attending this meeting also, why would anybody mind that? Everybody wants a way forward,” Raja said. “But to call this October 6 meeting illegal is absurd. The state units are not the ones suspended, they are well within their rights to have a meeting and take stock of the situation,” he added. The state units have also invited AIBA’s executive committee member from India, Kishan Narsi, to attend the meeting. “He has been invited and he should come to explain things because right now he is the link between AIBA and IBF, All correspondence is happening through him,” he said. The meeting will work out the date for a SGM, which in turn would decide the date for an annual general body meeting to hold elections. The SGM, if finalised on October 6, will feature the entire house – two representatives from each state and Board. The AIBA has maintained that to get the suspension revoked, the IBF will have to adopt a new constitution approved by it, besides holding fresh elections. In the most recent of its communications, the world body has set December 4 as the deadline to conduct the polls and adopt the Constitution that has been approved by November. Failing this, the AIBA has threatened to bar Indian boxers from competing in any international event. The new constitution has put a cap on the age and tenure of the office-bearers and done away with the Chairman’s post, which was created to accommodate former president and political heavyweight Abhey Singh Chautala. “Everybody can fight elections. Nobody is stopping the present set of office-bearers from contesting. They don’t have to delay the process like this because it is not helping anybody,” he said. “The Sports Ministry will depute an observer and it will be a transparent process,” he added. PTI