Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has decided to trim down 21 names from the list of non-athletes who were a part of the contingent for the Gold Coast bound Commonwealth Games. This has not gone down well with National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) chief Raninder Singh. 

Taking a dig at IOA’s decision, the NRAI chief said that they have to fight more in India than at the CWG. 

“The NRAI is clearly willing to pay for our observer, who is an integral part of our team. It’s almost as if we have to fight more here than there! .The issue shall be accreditation. I am willing to opt out as I think to have him,” Raninder wrote on his twitter handle.

Among those dropped from the Indian Olympic Association’s list include PV Sindhu’s mother Vijaya Pusarla, Saina Nehwal’s father Harvir Singh and shooter Heena’s husband Pandit, who is the High Performance Director of the Indian pistol and rifle team.

Raninder Singh has backed Heena Sindhu and given her assurance that her husband will be there with her. “Hinna (Heena) please don’t pay any attention to all this nonsense. Ronak will be there I assure you. Just put all this out of your mind and focus on your task. We will deal with this I assure you,” he replied to Heena’s tweet. 

Raninder continued to extend his support to Heena and her husband Ronak Pandit and stated that Ronak (who is Heena’s technical coach) can’t be considered in the same category as parents. 

“One cant club Ronak in the same category as parents. The parent thing one can understand but why keep picking on this young man so often? There clearly seems to be a strange bias against the young man - wonder why?” he tweeted. 

Meanwhile, Heena made it crystal clear that Ronak Pandit was her coach. “I just want 2 put it out for everyone that Ronak is my TECHNICAL COACH. Anybody who has spent even 5 mins on the range will know I have only one coach and that’s Ronak. He is also team manager for shooting..” she said.