WADA President’s India Visit Puts Spotlight on Doping Crisis

“Playing by the rules”, is a very conventionally accepted moral assumption that the society has regarding every endeavor that happens in its vicinity. We all assume that everybody is following the rules of integrity.The sports sector has its significance more than any other field, for in the words of philosopher Kant, it's the journey that decides the moral consequences, not the result, which makes winning by doping, a mere loss.

Doping is one such activity that has penetrated the Indian sporting ecosystem like unwanted barnacles on a blue whale. The rate of doping surge in India is 3.6%, and India having the highest number of doping cases among major countries highlights a structural failure on the part of the sports administrators.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Witold Banka, currently in India, met CBI Special Director Manoj Sashidhar to discuss the possible steps to curb this malpractice and break the nexus it formed with the criminal world too.

“An important meeting with Mr. Manoj Sashidhar, special director of the CBI, in Delhi. As part of the Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigations Network, we emphasized close cooperation with law enforcement to tackle organized doping and the criminal networks behind it,” Banka posted on social media.

"Today in Delhi, I visited NADA, India, and the National Dope Testing Laboratory. Urgent and serious discussions on the need to decisively strengthen anti-doping systems, confront persistent challenges, and ensure credible protection of the integrity of sport in India," he further said.

"Integrity of sports" was a key phrase that was highlighted during the meeting in an attempt to reinstate the pillars of ethics on which this entire industry is built upon in the first place.