The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) made history of sorts today when it slapped a life ban on woman weightlifters Pratima Kumari, Sanamacha Chanu and S Sunaina, and coach Pal Singh Sandhu. The bans follow the report on doping that the KP Singh Deo committee has submitted to the IOA. Pratima failed a pre-Olympic Games drug test while Chanu tested positive for a banned diuretic in Athens last month. Sunaina had tested positive at the Asian Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in April. While there can be no dispute about two lifters, and the news of Sandhu’s sacking is long overdue, questions are being raised over the punishment meted out to Pratima. Because the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which the IOA has invoked, stipulate a maximum two-year ban for a first offence. And this was Pratima’s first offence. At the press conference today where they announced the bans, neither IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi nor Singh Deo was able to explain the rationale for a life ban on the lifter. The one line they parroted was this: personal liability, implying that the lifter was responsible for whatever she consumed. That’s not what WADA says. While its rules allow for punishment to be reduced or eliminated on appeal, they don’t provide for enhancing the sentence. Not surprisingly, Pratima said she would contest the decision. ‘‘I believe this decision is based on things other than fact and without any justification’’, she told The Indian Express today. ‘‘I don’t know who do they want to save by killing my career.I will fight it out and expose them all. My only sin has been that I went to the media unlike other lifters.’’ Pratima apart, the sweeping ban will be welcomed if it indeed leads to a clean-up of the system, as Kalmadi said it would. ‘‘We have tolerated this for a long time now,’’ said Kalmadi, justifying the sanctions against the offenders. Kalmadi also said that any such offence committed by the athletes — across all disciplines — at the Olympics, Asian Games, Asian Championships and even Afro-Asian Games, would meet the same punishment. Finally, Sandhu falls The curtain has finally fallen on Pal Singh Sandhu, who has survived past doping scandals despite being closely linked with them. Several lifters have been banned for testing positive under his tutelage, both at national and international levels, but the coach has always managed to escape. Others weren’t so lucky; S.C. Goel, Hansa Sharma and junior SAI official Manilal were either suspended or faced action against them. The IOA’s action this time was for two reasons: the pressure exerted by the Sports Ministry and the WADA code of conduct, which calls on officials to be punished in the same way as athletes. Had the IOA and IWF refused, the Sports Ministry could have stopped the funding of a ‘‘banned’’ federation.
