AGARTALA, Aug 17 (TIWN): In a long letter to the Secretary of the Tripura Sports Council on 9th February 2012 , the 57-year old Nandi had explained the threat to her career as emanating from long-time chief coach of Indian gymnastic federation and also at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala. "When I raised the issue of deliberate partialitity to pull Dipa down to second place in a tournament in Bangladesh, Bawa threatened to come to Agartala with a stick to chastise me," Nandi, himself a five time national champion, wrote in the letter. " I have told him to come with a pistol if he can," Nandi wrote in the letter, indicating his desperation. A copy of the letter is available with Nandi's contemporary and veteran gymnast Lopamudra Ghosh, who made it available to the writer. Ghosh lives in Calcutta now. Nandi detailed how Dipa was relegated to second place to ensure the first position in the Sultana Kamal championships in Dhaka ( 28-30 Dec 2011) went to Meenakshi , a protege of Bawa and another lady coach close to him.

Through his clout, Bawa had ensured that this coach , now settled in Punjab but with roots in Tripura, was one of the judge at the Sultana Kamal championship. 

Nandi saw a 'huge conspiracy' in pushing Deepa to second place, though her performance was "far , far better than Meenakshi's". 

When Nandi raised the issue after the tournament, Bawa was furious and threatened to destroy both Nandi as a coach and his promising protege Dipa.

In sheer panic, Nandi wrote to the Tripura Sports Council to get the state government to intervene to save both his career as a coach and Dipa's as a gymnast.

Media reports indicated huge internal bickering in the federation over sending a team of gymnasts to the Commonwealth championship at Glasgow in 2014.

Dipa finally made the team and created history by being the first Indian woman to win a medal at Commonwealth Games after she bagged a bronze in the vault event in Glasgow .

The 20-year-old from Tripura collected 14.366 points to finish third in the women’s vault final . On Sunday, she scored 15.066 in the same event , a huge improvement in two years but not good enough to get her the Olympic bronze, which she missed by a whisker.

Unlike Nandi, who was easily the best men gymnast of his era and a five times national champion , Bawa is described in an internet CV as a 'player' , not a gymnast in his pre-coaching career. 

He was a small time footballer and is said to have emerged as a chief coach in gymnastics after starting off as a 'helper of sorts' , as top Tripura and India gymnast of the 1970s Lopa Mudra Ghosh described him . 

The irony is that after having coached Dipa to Olympic glory ( she finished fourth in the vault finals at Rio) , Bisheswar Nandi may still find himself deprived of 'Dronacharya' .

"That is because Bawa is intensely lobbying to get Dronacharya for his lifetime achievement as a gymnastic coach. But he has never produced a champion," says a bitter Ghosh .

Ghosh and other top former gymnasts from the eastern states have started a facebook campaign so that Nandi gets the Dronacharya award .

"We must ensure Nandi and not Bawa gets the 'Dronacharya' if we want to pay respect to the legendary teacher of Mahabharata fame," Ghosh alleged.

But G S Bawa , when contacted , denied the charges. He said he does not want to get 'Dronacharya' and would be happy if Bisheswar gets it.

He said both Dipa and Nandi have trained for the last three years under 'my overall guidance'. 

" I would ensure that Dipa can prepare for 2020 Tokyo Olympics right from now," Bawa said. 

About Nandi's allegation in the letter, Bawa said he was not aware when Nandi made these allegations officially and in writing. 

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