Power struggle leads to ‘indefinite postponement’ of IGU elections

The decision of the Indian Golf Union (IGU) to indefinitely postpone the elections to its Governing Council, scheduled for December 15, may well be headed to the court of law and reflects not only a bitter power struggle but also the overall state of sports administration in the country. Apparently, the decision to defer elections was made on Thursday because Justice (retd.) OP Garg, former judge of the Allahabad High Court ‘resigned’ as the Returning Officer. A day earlier, he had reversed an earlier order and declared five Associations from Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim as eligible to participate in the IGU elections.

The genesis of this drama is in a complaint by Shyam Sunder, a former IGU Governing Council member. After an Electoral College of 31 had been shared, he charged the five Associations with not having documents to be recognised as State Associations. They had not produced Statements of Accounts, Minutes of the AGMs, Election notifications and lists of golf courses, he said. 

It was reminiscent of many ‘Ghost Clubs’ on the Equestrian Federation of India roster with no horses or athletes in their ranks. Some suggested that that these clubs, seeking to retain power to decide the EFI executive, may not have registered themselves with the Registrars of Societies, may be without Constitutions and may be without PAN Cards and Bank Accounts.

Sadly, in the two years that it has been in office, the present IGU Governing Council did not usher in greater transparency and guarantee better governance at the State level by calling for an independent audit of the status of all State Associations. Nor did it facilitate the formation of the Athletes Commission and ensure greater participation of women in the governance of the sport.

It is apparent that the IGU President Brijender Singh and Secretary Sunil Shetty are now in opposite camps, having come together in 2022 to rebuff attempts by army officers, serving and retired, to retain control of the country’s apex golf body. They had defeated Lt. Gen. Devraj Anbu (retd.) and Lt. Gen. Asit Mistry (retd.) respectively.   

Lt. Gen. Rana Pratap Kalita, General Officer Commanding in Chief, Eastern Command, Lt. Gen. Basant Kumar Repswal, Commandant, ASC Centre and Corps, and Lt. Gen. Dhiraj Seth, General Officer Commanding, Delhi Area, were the serving officers whose bid to get elected as IGU Governing Council members were derailed back in 2022.

Be that as it may, Justice Garg issued notices to officials of these Association. He got no response and excluded them from the Electoral College. “These are without golf courses as members except Army Environmental Park and Training Areas, the names of their Presidents, Secretaries, office-bearers are not in public domain, they only exist on paper,” he said on November 25. 

Based on that decision, on November 26, the IGU President shared an electoral college of 26 State Associations, not including the five who have been in the eye of the storm. However, in a sharp U-turn a day later, the Returning Officer ruled them eligible to participate in the election process and directed the IGU Director General to include them in the Electoral College.

“These Associations have challenged the (November 25) order primarily on the ground that it is vitiated as no opportunity of hearing was given to them and that no notice said to have been issued was received. It is further pleaded that the membership of the Associations could not be terminated in the manner it has been done,” Justice Garg said.

He revealed that IGU Secretary Sunil Shetty who had gone through the various required documents submitted by the five Associations, also agreed that they were in order and had supported the case of the five Associations. “I find that all the above five SGAs have complied with the requirements as contained in the bylaws governing IGU,” he wrote. 

On Thursday, an unsigned statement by IGU, including quotes by its President Brijinder Singh said Justice Garg did not have the opportunity to either have the documents presented by these State Associations verified by IGU or complete due diligence before passed an order to reverse his decision.

It alleged that Justice Garg’s decision to reverse his own order was prima facie a case of Army’s high-handedness in pushing Army-officer controlled State Associations. It said Lt. Gen. Bhavnish Kumar, Brig. Atul Rajput, Col. Gaurav Verma and IGU Secretary Harish Shetty had forced him to revere his order. 

Brijinder Singh said when some Governing Council members and he asked Justice Garg for the reasons for his reversed order, they discovered senior Army officers had ‘cornered’ the Returning Officer and made him accept their plea without scrutinising any documents. Justice Garg verbally tendered his resignation and said would send a formal communication, the IGU President claimed.

The IGU Governing Council then held a meeting to resolve by majority vote to postpone the elections till it gets more clarity on these five State Associations. It decided that a committee would visit these five State Associations to gather the information before making a considered decision if they could be part of the electoral college or not.