PICTURE SPEAK

FIGHT ZONE: training session at NIS

As though the Commonwealth Games scandal isn’t bad enough for the nis, touted as Asia’s largest sports facility and a “premier” institution, there is more on its plate at the moment. If Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has his way, the institute may have to bow out of Patiala on grounds of a poor track record. Amarinder wants to shift it from Patiala to make space for the proposed National Defence University on its 262 acre campus.

In a slew of letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the last three months, Amarinder has contended that the nis campus, also famous as the Moti Bagh palace, which has a majestic built-up area of 1.12 lakh sq m, is “grossly underutilised”. One of the letters states that only 10 per cent of the complex is in use as most nis activities have shifted to Bangalore while its Patiala chapter only trains coaches.

Suresh Kumar, principal secretary to the chief minister, joins the debate, saying, “The nis has made no social value addition to the state.” And then he asks a pertinent question: “What laurels has the nis brought to the country as compared to the great gallantry tradition of the Punjabis in the armed forces?” Amarinder has even suggested a compromise: if not the entire campus, the nis should spare 100 acres of the palace precints for the defence university.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI), which controls and runs the nis, vehemently denies the charge that most of the institute’s campus lies unutilised. Says its executive director, L.S. Ranawat, “The nis infrastructure is bursting at the seams due to a series of coaching camps and academic programmes throughout the year.” Of the six nis centres in the country, the one at Patiala is the busiest, he says. With a 275-member staff, it conducts an average of 30 national camps a year, while it has been a permanent venue for athletics camps for 175 athletes and 44 coaches for the past many years.

Slugging it out GOVERNMENT’S STAND

Time to vacate: Only 10 per cent of the NIS complex, spread over 262 acres, is in use. Besides, it has not contributed enough to Indian sports. Hub no more: Most of the NIS activities have shifted to Bangalore and only coaches are trained at Patiala.

NIS’ REPLY

No room: Academic and coaching activities have to be in fact curtailed due to lack of space. It has a strong sports and scientific infrastructure. Played its part: The centre has produced top-grade coaches. On course: Only one course was shifted to Bangalore because of better climate there.

Ranawat says lack of space and accommodation forces the nis to curtail its coaching and academic activities and turn down requests to hold national camps in its campus. He claims that in 2005-06, 33 national camps attended by 1,050 sportspersons were held at the centre. All five hostels, which can accommodate 600 persons, are occupied for most of the year. Other than coaching camps in athletics, boxing, judo, weightlifting, and table tennis, the nis also runs three academic programmes—10-month diploma courses in 17 disciplines and two courses in sports medicine.

The SAI also rebuts the Punjab Government’s claim that most sports activities of Patiala have shifted to Bangalore. According to it, only the diploma course in swimming has been shifted to Bangalore because the climate there was better. Academic disciplines which had been moved out of Patiala in the 1990s during the terrorist troubles in Punjab have been restored. SAI also argues that the nis will be playing a vital role in preparing the Indian contingent for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The SAI authorities go to the extent of calling nis, Patiala, the Mecca of Indian sports and list the coaches it has produced. In his communication to the Punjab Government, the SAI director-general outlined the sports ministry’s ambitious five-year plan to expand and upgrade the nis infrastructure. “We are implementing the first phase involving Rs 12 crore,” says Ranawat.

A more dispassionate analysis would, however, reveal that the nis’ first line of defence—its contribution to Indian sports—is weak. Established in 1961, its core mandate may have been to produce high-calibre coaches, but today it has an unenviable reputation which mirrors India’s declining sporting performances. The centre has been mired in periodic doping scandals and its core strength has eroded for want of trained faculty.

Since the ’90s, the institute has turned from a finishing school into a conveyor belt that produces 250-odd coaches a year across 17 disciplines. Their only calling card appears to be employability, not excellence. It was not so in the initial years when foreign instructors produced a crop of high-grade coaches. The nis has been charged with failing to produce a second generation of competent coaches. “Lack of fresh blood has hamstrung the nis in the recent years,” agrees Joginder Singh Saini, former national athletics coach.

The SAI has not recruited a single coach since 1991 and the nis has been without the deans of academics and sports medicine since 1993. Part of the rot at the institute stems from the SAI’s weak academic standards. The intake for coaching courses is a mediocre mix of academics and sporting credentials—athletes who have represented India need a high school qualification, while national level athletes should at least be graduates. Coaching courses in the West take several years but the nis rolls out a coach in 10-and-a-half months. “In such a short time, it is not possible to teach the techniques and tactics required to be a high-grade,” says Ashok Ahuja, head, sports medicine at nis. There’s a shortage of manpower, too—the 29 scientists in seven specialised sports at SAI’s centres in Patiala, Bangalore, Kolkata and Delhi oversee activities in 35 disciplines.

“Either the nis should justify its existence in terms of the standards or make way for the defence university,” says Suresh Kumar, principal secretary to the chief minister. While the proposed defence university is still pending clearance from the pmo, Amarinder has not given up. Meanwhile, even as the pmo examines the issue of setting up the defence university at the nis campus, the institute is using the pretext of the 2010 Commonwealth Games to bolster its infrastructure. As usual, Indian sports is a mere spectator in this wrestling match dominated by politics.

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