India’s anti-doping programme is at the nadir. Thank to the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of athletes who need to be tested is low. Worse, many athletes who are preparing for the postponed Tokyo Olympics and are not necessarily in national camps may be using food supplements which could be dodgy.
Recently, news of promising weightlifting Jeremy Lalrinnunga being repeatedly tested at NIS Patiala was in print. One is not sure why Jeremy was being tested repeatedly, though some attribute it to his being registered in the pool of elite athletes.
Had the National Dope Testing Laboratory in the Capital been functional, more Indian athletes could have been tested. However, in recent times, more news of dope testing only pertained to cricketers in the Indian Premier League in the United Arab Emirates.
The latest one hears is that even though a new IRMS (Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry) machine has been procured for the NDTL, it is still not functional. It is well known, when the NDTL was first suspended last year by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the reasons were many.
There were flaws in the dope sample collection, the coding procedure was not proper, , the number of scientists required in the lab had shrunk and the IRMS machine was throwing inaccurate results. Worse, the interference from the Sports Ministry did no good even though the NDTL is supposed to be an autonomous body.
The latest one hears is the NDTL will come under the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). Top doctors said the NDTL should stay independent and work on the flaws and coming under the ICMR will be meaningless.
Worse, even though the new IRMS machine has been bought at a huge price, courtesy tax payers’ money, hiring technicians is turning out to be a nightmare as salaries being offered are not lucrative enough.
When the NDTL suspension was extended till January 2021, one thought the men in charge of the lab would work overtime to make it fully compliant and functional. That, however, does not seem to be happening, say sources.
As it is, the WADA is in no hurry to lift the suspension of the NDTL, a lab which had been set up in 2009 before the New Delhi Commonwealth Games. The glory days of the lab are behind. when foreign samples which were tested there generated revenue. Today, not only has India’s anti-doping programme become farcical, the NDTL mess is also not improving.
Maybe, the higher authorities in the Indian government should probe this. The sports ministry has no clue about the NDTL and its comments earlier through sports minister Kiren Rijiju and former sports secretary RS Julaniya were also immature.
Maybe in December, we will again hear from the WADA on the NDTL. It is hard to imagine there will be an inspection of the lab as scheduled international flights are still not operational.
Mr. S. Kannan
Senior, Sports Journalist
