By IANS,
New Delhi : Badminton Association of India (BAI) president V. K. Verma Friday said government guidelines or no guidelines, he enjoys “overwhelming” support and will continue in office as long as his colleagues want him to.
“I am surprised some speculative and inspired media reports have suggested that anonymous BAI members want me to step down since I have completed 12 years as president,” Verma told IANS from Chennai ahead of Sunday’s annual general meeting (AGM).
“This is actually Mohammad Azharuddin’s line after he has suddenly started showing interest in badminton, but I am not going to oblige him and I am hundred percent contesting the election,” he added.
Referring to the sports ministry’s allegation that the BAI has scaled down its government grants, Verma said it is the ministry that has bloated the figures by adding airfare and other sundry allowances paid to the Indian teams to international events as grants.
“The ministry could have as well added the money spent on the indoor stadium at Siri Fort to inflate the figure of grants to BAI,” Verma quipped.
Verma, who has just returned from London after attending a Commonwealth Games Federation meeting, said there is no question of backing off from elections at a time when Indian badminton is at the take-off stage.
“In the last couple of years, BAI has taken a number of steps to popularise the game in the country, resulting in more and more youngsters taking to sport. We never had so many players at the top level internationally as we now have.
“We have worked in collaboration with the Asian and World federations to commercialise the game and today there are any number of major sponsors willing to support the sport. These steps have brought big international tournaments like Super Series events to India,” said Verma.
As for the election of other office-bearers, Verma said it will all be smooth, picking agreeable names for various posts.
Punnaiah Choudhury, the acting BAI secretary, told IANS that the members know fully well that Azhar has little chance of polling double-digit votes, let alone winning the election.
“We want an election so that the world will know the actual support Azhar has. I can safely say that Verma’s opponent, whoever he is, will not get more than four-five votes,” said Choudhury who himself is likely to be the next secretary.
Choudhury reiterated that BAI would gladly welcome the ministry’s observer Deepika Kachhal, though she will have no role to play when there are observers from the world body and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to supervise the election.