Indian Discussion Forum

New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI) Former Hockey India secretary general Mohammad Aslam today slammed his successor Narinder Batra for attacking the government and said if not for the Sports Ministry, the ad-hoc body would have struggled to arrange finances for the national team's exposure trips last year.

Batra recently accused the Sports Ministry of encouraging groupism and creating pressure on HI to grant affiliation to Hockey Punjab, a statement which Aslam termed as "foolish and uncalled for".

"The statement of Mr Narinder Batra is absolutely rubbish. It was tottaly uncalled for and foolish to attack the Sports Ministry. From April last year to till now the Ministry has been supporting hockey in a big way," Aslam told PTI from Saharanpur.

"It is because of the government's financial support we could send the national team to the exposure trips last year.