KATHMANDU, July 25: Following a shake-up in Nepal Shito-ryo Karate Association (NSKA), senior karate player Dawa Gurung made his comeback to the Nepali sports administration after eight years as the NSKA President.
Gurung has been appointed President of the newly-formed executive committee of the association. He was sacked from the presidency by the NSC board led by Kishor Bahadur Singh about eight years ago.
“I was reluctant to take charge of the association but friends and players requested me to accept the leadership position. I found coaches and players are looking for a good leadership and I thought I can reform the association,” said Gurung. [break]
NSC Member-Secretary Yuvaraj Lama said he has picked Gurung for his leadership qualities. “Nepal won 14 gold medals in karate at the Eighth South Asian Games under the leadership of Dawa (Gurung) and I´ve never found him working against the system or the sports,” Lama claimed. “I´m sure he´ll give better leadership to the association,” Lama added.
Dev Kumar Lama, Majindra Singh and Keshav Singh Thakuri are three Vice-Presidents in the newly-formed 17-member NSKA body, where Mahesh Kumar Shrestha is the general secretary.
Meanwhile, Kedar Babu Siwakoti, president to the dissolved NSKA executive, has refuted the allegations and accused Member-Secretary Lama of displaying irresponsible attitude.
NSC alleges Siwakoti committee
NSC Member-Secretary Yuvaraj Lama accused NSKA executive committee led by Kedar Babu Siwakoti of not calling general assembly for nine years and of not making financial transactions transparent. Meanwhile, Lama accused Siwakoti of selling 1,200 blackbelt certificates to unqualified players. However, Lama could not reveal a single name who benefited from such balckbelt certificate sellout.
Lama complained that Siwakoti sent players to the Asian Karate Federation Championship without proper selection. “We have heard that NSKA had sent players living in Macau,” claimed Lama. “I´m not dissolving associations as per my whims. Whoever challenges state authority and law of the land will face the same consequences,” said Lama.
NSC Member-Secretary Lama had forwarded a proposal to dissolve Nepal Amateur Athltics Association last week but the final decision is yet to come.
Lama claimed officials of the dissolved NSKA board tried to put pressure on him for to reconsider his decision. “They didn´t discuss the matter with NSC but they tried to meet Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal and Maoists Chairman Prachanda,” said Lama, who himself belongs to UCPN (Maoist).
Siwakoti to fight legal battle
In response to a Republica query, Siwakoti said that the decision was an autocratic one and he would challenge the decision in the court. “We´ll go to the Supreme Court. The Member-Secretary does not have the power to dissolve associations,” challenged Siwakoti. “I´ve informed Nepal Olympic Committee and World Karatedo Federation and they will soon make their stand clear in favor of my committee,” claimed Siwakoti.
He refuted the allegations and accused Member-Secretary Lama of displaying irresponsible attitude. “I challenge Lama to show the evidence of selling blackbelt certificates,” said Siwakoti. “We have not sent anyone to Guangzhou from Macau under the NSKF quota. Rather, some former karatekas living in Macau visited there on their own as observers,” Siwakoti argued.
He also accused Lama of showing negligence for sending players to Guangzhou. “I´ve frequently met Lama and asked to sanction budget to send players who have won medals in the 11th South Asian Games and participated in the Asian Games to Guangzhou but he showed negligence, which barred players from participating in the championship,” claimed Siwakoti.
Siwakoti accused Lama of showing autocracy and spoiling Nepali sports.
Sofukan rejects posts
NSC had included four sofukan karate officials in the newly-formed NSKA body but they rejected the proposal during the program organized to announce new committee. Rajesh Bhakta Shrestha, Dhwaj Man Moktan, Sangha Ratna Maharjan and Saral Samsher Rana of sofukan karate, which they claimed to be a part of shito-ryo karate, were included in the committee. However, all four said that they will take the posts only if Nepal Sofukan Shito-ryo Karate Federation is formed.