The Athletics Federation of India's decision to provisionally suspend a dozen athletes who went missing when officials from the World Anti-Doping Agency came calling has not gone down well in certain AFI circles. Many feel they were punished without sufficient reason.
"You cannot just suspend someone for such trivial matters. Even if they were absent when the WADA team came for inspection you cannot punish them just on the basis of suspicion," former national sprint champion Adille Sumariwala said.
"There has to be some guilt proved before such strong action is taken," Sumariwala, who is himself the associate vice-president of the federation, said.
For its part, the AFI denied that the suspension had anything to do with doping or the WADA team's visit to the Patiala training camp.
"It is a matter of indiscipline as these athletes absented themselves from the national camp after their return from South Africa without permission," AFI secretary-general Lalit Bhanot said.
The federation's disciplinary committee has given the 12 athletes time till February 26 to explain their absence from the camp failing which they can be suspended for various periods.
"If they have nothing to say about their disappearance, they could face suspension for periods ranging from one month to three months. They certainly would not go to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games," Bhanot said.
This has left Sumariwala, also a member of the AFI's senior selection committee, unimpressed.
That is understandable as some of the athletes provisionally suspended from domestic meets are top medal contenders for the quadrennial mega event.
They include Asian 400 metres champion Manjeet Kaur, long-jumper Maha Singh, shot putters Navpreet Singh and Ranvijay Singh, national sprint champion and record holder Anil Kumar, quarter miler Bhupinder Singh, decathlete Kulwinder Singh, national discus record-holder Seema Antil, and heptathlete J J Sobha, who impressed at the Athens Olympics.
"When there is no proof of any wrong-doing, how can such stiff sentences be meted out?" Sumariwala said. "After all, these athletes have put in years of training and toil to reach their present position.
"I will speak with AFI officials regarding this situation," he said.
The 11-time 100 metres national champion was quick to point out that he is not going soft on doping in any way.
"If anyone is proved guilty, by all means, crucify him. But do not harass athletes without proof."
Interestingly, discus thrower Harwant Kaur, who was also absent from the camp when the WADA team visited it, has not been issued a show-cause notice.
"She had sought permission for training in her hometown in Amritsar and we had granted her request," Bhanot said.
"None of the other missing athletes were required to be at the camp as per WADA regulations," a top AFI official said.
The national athletes have to provide their whereabouts to WADA every three months and they are liable to inspection.
They can also be picked up for random in-competition and out-of-competition drug testing.
"But if the athlete is not found at the notified place by WADA officials, they do not pursue her whereabouts further and assume it to be non-co-operation," the senior official said.
"It explains why the WADA team did not go to Amritsar to check out on Harwant," he said.
The Punjab thrower is one of the handful of Indian athletes on the elite list after Neelam Jaswant Singh tested positive for pemoline at the World Athletics Championship in Helsinki last August.
Ace long jumper Anju Bobby George is a WADA-certified athlete and the agency used her pictures on various promotional material.
With a series of high level competitions, like the Commonwealth Games and the Doha Asian Games lined up this year, the athletes are expected to stay at the national camps which run almost throughout the year.
"This can get stressful as the athletes have to stay away from their families for long periods of time. Many of them have families and also have to look after their parents," the federation official said.
"To deal with this problem, AFI has allowed the spouse of an athlete to stay with him/her during the camp," he informed.
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