Officials fail to flex their muscles in Dinesh Aswal’s case

The much-talked photo shoot, for which Dinesh reportedly wasn’t paid, was for a newsletter published by a Gurgaon-based health supplement company Hercules.

The company’s managing director, Mahesh Chaudhary, says, ‘‘These are complimentary copies which are also sent to the Indian Bodybuilding Association. Even if Dinesh was at fault, it’s not that the association was not aware of it. Accordingly, they should have reacted and not waited for the 11th hour,’’ he said.

It wasn’t just Dinesh — a Commonwealth Championship winner earlier this year — who was pulled up; PV Polly (Mr Asia), Yogesh Senon (10 times Mr India), Rajesh Tyagi and Manjit Singh, both Mr India title-winners, were also banned two years after they endorsed the product. But Polly and Dinesh were the worst affected since both had qualified for the Busan Games.

While Polly gave up without a fight, Dinesh went to the Delhi High Court, which ordered that he be sent to Busan.

As Dinesh’s coach Bhupinder Dhawan laments, ‘‘This was a minor technicality which the Indian officials could have explained to the Asian body. Even if for a minute we agree that Dinesh was at fault, why did the officials wait till the player had reached Busan?’’

When contacted, treasurer of the Indian Bodybuilding Association, Deepak Bhogel said: ‘‘When the Asian body objected we couldn’t do anything as they were going by the law and our hands were tied. But I agree we should have done something much earlier.’’

It also seems apparent now that federation president Madhav Pujari and secretary Suresh Kadam, who are in Busan, didn’t do much after he was asked to pack his bags. Dinesh’s father Bhagwan Aswal — a driver in the Delhi Government secretariat — said his son had called him up after learning about the ban and he sounded absolutely disheartened.

‘‘All the officials have deserted him and he is now labelled as a cheat. Dinesh was in tears when he told me that there was no support from the officials,’’ he said.

Even the vice-president of the Delhi Bodybuilding Federation, Inder Mohan, agreed that the Indian officials should have supported Dinesh’s case. Mohan said: ‘‘The national body should have taken the players’ case more forcefully to the Asian body. Such episodes are very demoralising for young bodybuilders.’’