NEW DELHI, Aug 29: A fresh dispute has erupted in the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI) with rivals factions submitting separate long lists to the IOA for the upcoming Youth Asian Games, and rider Vaasvi Khaitan approaching the Delhi High Court seeking directions for fair selection. Fearing that she may miss out on making the Indian squad for the Youth Asian Games in the "absence of a clear selection criteria", Vaasvi approached the court on Thursday. The court heard the matter on Friday and set September 1 (Monday) as the next hearing date.
However, the last date for submitting the final list to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is August 31. The third edition of the Youth Asian Games is set to be held in Bahrain from October 22-31. The faction led by Acting EFI President Colonel Jagat Singh sent the long list of eight riders to the IOA and it does not have Vaasvi's name.
The selected riders are: Avik Bhatia, Jaiveer Verma, M Krishna Sahiti, A Harshiyt, Bhuwan, Jaiveer Nagra, Shub Choudhary and Ranbir Dhillon.
Interestingly, Secretary General Colonel Jaiveer Singh also sent a long list of 19 athletes, including Vaasvi, to the IOA on July 29.
When contacted, Col. Jagat Singh said no athlete approached them for any clarity.
"No athlete has approached us, instead they approached the court directly. We have picked the athletes on merit," Jagat Singh told PTI.
Asked about the selection criteria to pick the athletes, he said, "We had revived the selection committee disbanded by Col. Jaiveer Singh, who the EC had suspended. The revived selection committee has picked the athletes on merit. The EFI statute allows to pick Indian teams based on points earned by the rider if there is no time to hold selection trials."
However, Article 211 of the EFI statute says that the rule regarding picking teams on the basis of points earned is not applicable for selecting teams for the Asian Games, Asian Championships, Olympic Games and World Championships.
EFI statute also mentions that holding of selection trials should be announced at least one month in advance of the dates of trials.
Vaasvi's father Vedant Khaitan said his daughter deserves to be in the Indian team, based on her performance.
"This is an age-group competition and after all how many eligible Indian athletes there would be? We never got a communication from the EFI if my daughter would like to register for this," Vedant told PTI.
"There are two factions, two emails, two separate EFI websites operating. Which one do we refer to? There is no clarity and the athletes are suffering. Is it not the responsibility to the EFI to lay down a clear selection criteria.
"I want to know what selection criteria is being adopted. My daughter has trained with Olympians. Is she not good enough? She has competed in Netherlands, France, Belgium and England in FEI events in the last three years. Were those results considered?
"She won the Teuto Rising Stars event in Germany and the Indian national anthem was played in that tournament for the first time. Was that result considered?" said a furious Vedant.
Vaasvi's petition mentions that depriving the petitioner and other athletes the opportunity to participate in prestigious international events on account of infighting between members of the Executive Committee and/or situations beyond the control of the athletes would be a travesty.
Vaasvi pursued riding at Millfield School in the United Kingdom and recently shifted to Normandy, France to train under Amy Graham.
The Delhi High Court had appointed former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi to oversee the functioning of the EFI while responding to a petition from the Rajasthan Equestrian Association in November 2019.
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