NEW DELHI: Ahead of the inaugural season of Pro Panja League, tournament promoters Preeti Jhangiani and Parvin Dabas Tuesday announced the launch of a freshly minted People’s Armwrestling Federation of India (PAFI).
While there is already a national body – Indian Arm Wrestling Federation (IAWF) – in existence since 1977, what the breakaway PAFI has going for it from the get go is official international affiliation and recognition from the World Armwrestling Federation (WAF) and Asian Armwrestling Federation (AAF). Another crucial advantage that the husband-wife duo of Jhangiani and Dabas have is that IAWF is NOT among the list of National Sports Federations recognised by the Union government.
Coming back to the launch announcement, Jhangiani has been named president of the newly-formed “self-regulatory” body, along with Laxman Singh Bhandari as general secretary, Dr Shrikant Warankar as senior vice president, and Tariq Khan and Tapas Bhowmick as committee members.
It is also worth noting that Jhangiani was named president of the Maharashtra Armwrestling Association in March. Which means that at least one (and presumably more) of the 29 state arm wrestling associations affiliated with IAWF will be aligned with PAFI from the outset.
Commenting on the developments, Jhangiani said, “Thank you to Mr Jeenbek Mukambetov, president AAF and the entire team at AAF for their faith and trust in PAFI and our team. As the president of the only official internationally affiliated armwrestling federation of India, along with general secretary Laxman Singh Bhandari, vice-president Dr Srikant Warankar and our formidable team at PAFI, we aim to popularise armwrestling from the grassroots up and also concentrate on para armwrestling and female armwrestling tournaments all over the country.”
Mircea Simionescu-Simicel, WAF general secretary, opined: “We are pleased to welcome the new Asian Armwrestling Federation member from India, the People’s Armwrestling Federation of India, presided by Mrs Preeti Jhangiani. We congratulate them for their continuous development and promotion of armwrestling in India, and we are looking forward welcoming them to the World Armwrestling Federation during the 2023 World Armwrestling & Para-Armwrestling Championships organized in Almaty, Kazakhstan between 24th of August and 3rd of September 2023.”
Mukambetov added, “At the Asian Armwrestling Federation (AAF) Congress on April 30 2023, People’s Armwrestling Federation India (PAFI) was unanimously accepted as a member of the AAF and will represent India in international competitions held by the World Armwrestling Federation (WAF). We welcome them wholeheartedly.”
Meanwhile, Bhandari asserted to SportzPower: “PAFI is not a breakaway group. There were several issues happening within the Indian Armwrestling Federation due to which they were under the scanner of the world bodies and were being removed by them. Hence, like-minded people led by Preeti Jhangiani and experienced officials came together to form the People Armwrestling Federation of India.
“Apart from Preeti as president, PAFI consists of people who have been in arm-wrestling world for the last 30-35 years and have a lot of experience, including World Armwrestling referees and heads of associations of states. It is a group of like-minded individuals who want to take the sport forward in a non-political and non-controversial manner in India. We hope to set a standard of how federations should function in India.”
Report updated with comments from PAFI general secretary Laxman Singh Bhandari.
