Triple Olympian N. Mukesh Kumar, who is the incumbent secretary of Telangana hockey for quite some time, was in for a shocker when the Olympic Association of Telangana at its general body meeting here on Saturday granted affiliation to another body headed by Bheem Singh.
This decision was taken, according to OAT President K. Ranga Rao, after a committee appointed by them and headed by Mohd Rafat Ali, retired IAS officer and now the president of Telangana Football Association, submitted a report stating that there were a lot of discrepancies in the election process of Mr. Mukesh Kumar.
Ironically, Mukesh’s body is the one recognised by the national federation, Hockey India, which in turn is affiliated to the international hockey body, FIH, and to the Indian Olympic Association.
“We have repeatedly asked Mr. Mukesh to submit all the documents. And when one of his representatives attended the OAT meeting in this regard, he said that he was not able to produce all the documents needed as he was away in Nizamabad for a women’s hockey tournament. And, we gave him some more time and still there was no response,” Prof. Rao explained.
“When no relevant papers were submitted to OAT at its final meeting on November 10 in this regard, we have to go as per our panel report and grant affiliation to Bheem Singh group as per the provisions of the IOA Constitution,” Prof. Rao remarked.
For his part, Mr. Mukesh expressed shock at the decision reminding that their representative Gyan Chand did submit all the relevant documents to the OAT.
“It is surprising that when we are the affiliated unit of HI which is in turn recognised by IOA, how can the State body ignore this and grant affiliation to someone else,” wondered Mr. Mukesh.
