IGU Election attracts controversy

As many Indian golfers know, the IGU has been facing headwinds as the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs had some years ago directed the IGU to rewrite its constitution in keeping with the National Sports Code ( NSC), which IGU delayed rewriting for a variety of reasons.

Basically, as per the NSC, voting members of the IGU have to be representatives of state golf associations instead of golf clubs. And each state would have one vote no matter whether they had ten golf courses or one, or in some cases, no golf course at all ! Since state golf associations had never been formed earlier, there was a sudden rush to register these bodies. Surprisingly,  Army Officers have formed and occupied many of the positions in the state associations.

Lt Gen Anbu, while serving as Vice Chief of Army Staff, had been voted President of the IGU since 2018, in what is called a “caretaker” role. However it has become apparent that the Army intends to keep the presidency and wants to control a majority of the State associations which might mean that they can continue to vote Army officers in as the office bearers of the IGU for many years to come.

Many golf administrators feel Army Officers controlling the IGU may not serve in the best interests of the game since Army courses firstly are not open to civilian play , they are called “Army Environmental and Protected/ Training Areas ( AEPTA)” and not golf courses.

Army courses don’t host national tournaments and don’t possess golf academies for training promising and top Indian players.  All the important golf activity takes place at civilian courses and that too on just a handful of the 18 hole championship quality courses that exist. 

You can read veteran sports writer G Rajaraman’s detailed analysis of the controversial manner in which the Electoral College has been compiled. Click on circleofsport.com/

On December 18th, a handful of experienced golf administrators were called in, as per required process to scrutinise the electoral rolls and record their observations, objections  and approval. All objections were summarily rejected by the returning officer, who is, incidentally appointed by the office bearers of IGU themselves, which virtually guarantees that impartiality of judgement could be compromised. Read all about it here in yet another insightful piece by Rajaraman: Anbu set to lead IGU after Returning Officer over-rules objections against all nominees

For those who are interested in knowing who their state golf association’s representatives are – here is the list reproduced for your convenience. 

The Indian Golf Union

Election of Office Bearers and Members of Governing Council for 2020-22