Para-shooters protest at India’s Asian Para Games send-off over selection allegations
On October 8, para-shooters staged a protest at the send-off ceremony for India’s Asian Para Games contingent, objecting to selection decisions for the Aichi-Nagoya Games and disrupting the event where Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya launched the new Team India jersey.
The demonstration was led by members of the para-shooting squad who carried placards and publicly challenged their exclusion from the Indian team despite what they described as qualifying performances and rankings. The ceremony was organised by the Paralympic Committee of India and attended by prominent para-athletes and officials, including PCI president Devendra Jhajharia; it was at this event that Mandaviya formally gave the Indian contingent a send-off.
In a representation submitted at the venue, the protesting shooters accused officials of demanding a cut from athletes’ government awards and alleged other irregularities in team selection. The document stated, "Athletes are being coerced under severe duress into paying an illegal kickback of 20 per cent of their sanctioned government cash awards to designated committee office-bearers as a mandatory pre-condition for national team selection," and also questioned the appointment of an individual as a technical expert and Director of Operations, saying that person had "no record of participation in an official competitive shooting event."
Two named protesters, Sandeep Kumar and Akash, pushed specific selection grievances. Sandeep, described in the representation as a P4 50m free pistol SH1 shooter ranked third in Asia, said he was "deeply aggrieved" and challenged the decision to select Rudrankksh Khandelwal—whom the shooters said was ranked 14th in Asia—ahead of himself and Akash.
Akash alleged his omission was linked to coach designation requirements and accused selectors of excluding him because he had not named Jai Prakash Nautiyal as his coach. He told officials at the send-off, "That is why he cut my name. I have been here for two months. He keeps saying that we are doing your work. Every day, he says that we are doing your work, but he is not doing anything," according to the report.
Sandeep said he had approached the authorities with documentary evidence backing his case but did not receive a commitment from PCI president Devendra Jhajharia. The protest came amid wider selection difficulties after India's quota for the Asian Para Games was reduced from 130 to 60, a reduction the shooters cited as a complicating factor.
Head coach Satyanarayana addressed the gathering and defended the selection process, saying, "This time the quota has been reduced. It was 130 quota, and from 130 we have come down to 60. Seventy people have been cut," and adding that the athletes selected had met the required criteria. Sports Minister Mandaviya urged the para-athletes to concentrate on their targets and winning medals for the country, while para-badminton star Pramod Bhagat was named India's flag bearer for the Games.
The protesting shooters departed the ceremony with their grievances unresolved, turning an occasion intended to mark the start of India's campaign into a public confrontation over the procedures used to pick the para-shooting team, even as the contingent prepares for the Asian Para Games in Japan.