Rio-bound Ayonika in NRAI crosshairs over crowd funding
NEW DELHI: Rio Olympics-bound rifle shooter Ayonika Paul and Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), a private body funding athletes, have left the national shooting federation fuming.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) took exception to Genpact, a funder-supporter of OGQ, starting a crowd funding initiative on milaap.org in Ayonika’s name seeking funds for, among others things, a sports jacket costing ₹3 lakh that the shooter needs for the Olympics.
NRAI president Raninder Singh told HT that the campaign showed the federation and the government in a bad light. “A crore and something has been given under the (government’s) TOP (Target Olympic Podium) scheme to the athlete. While we welcome sponsorships from private parties like OGQ, who are a great help to the athlete, this is hardly the way for them to raise funds,” he said.
Initially, Ayonika was to get ₹60 lakh under the TOPS. She had then sought ₹1.14crore for a 47-day training stint from April-june, which included the purchase of equipment worth ₹33 lakh. This wasn’t lost on Raninder Singh.
“I mean what are they doing? They are basically running down the image of the athlete. They are insinuating that the federation does nothing for its Olympians and the Government of India has left them in the lurch, which is absolutely incorrect. The amount of funding the 12 shooters have got from the government this year is unprece dented. When you are giving a crore and something, why are you selling this ₹3 lakh nonsense?”
When contacted, Ayonika’s father, Ashim Paul, said he did not wish to comment. NRAI secretary Rajiv Bhatia wrote to Ashim as well as OGQ chief Viren Rasquinha on Wednesday to explain the issue and asked them to immediately remove the crowd funding campaign from the website to “avoid any further embarrassment”.
Rasquinha apologised to the federation while mentioning that it was Genpact, and not OGQ which was responsible. “We sin cerely apologise to Ayonika and to the NRAI for any embarrassment that has been caused. I can assure you that was never the intention We have asked Genpact to stop the campaign with immediate effect and it has already been taken off the website,” he wrote. The web page has now been deleted.