Asked why he chose Lee-Hesh (Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi) for the London Olympics, the newly-elected president of the All India Tennis Association (AITA), Anil Khanna, told reporters tersely: “national interest”.

“They have played four Olympics together. They played for India despite differences so we expect them to bury their differences and play for the nation at London Olympics also. They have $6,000 every month from the government (to train). They cannot refuse to play,” he said at a press conference. Moments later, Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna issued a joint statement criticising the AITA decision.

Later in the day, sports minister Ajay Maken threw in his weight, sending a show-cause notice to AITA to explain its current logic of sending only one team to the Olympic Games. “The government has been funding and supporting multiple players to train and qualify for the Olympics. What is the justification of denying two players, who have qualified as a team on merit, by sending just one Indian team when India can send two teams?” the letter asked AITA. Not just this, the ministry has given clear hints that since it has been funding AITA, like any other sports federation in the country, then why has there been no transparency in the decision-making process.

Broadly speaking, the minister’s intervention is nothing but pure national interest as is Khanna’s Lee-Hesh choice. So, is it a conflict of national interests? While that is not clear, a section of media has criticised the minister’s intervention calling him the cabinet’s new Mamata Banerjee. That’s not fair.

The source of all trouble in the current imbroglio is a faulty selection and selectors’ insistence to stick with that. The selection committee’s decision reeks of impartiality and escapism. While they funded Hesh-Bopanna as a team, they paired Hesh with Lee, based on a back-of-the-envelope best-of-all-time calculation, ignoring the harsher reality of the hard-baked enmity between the two. But the truth is that tennis players in India have always selected themselves on the basis of their rankings. The AITA’s role has been more of a patron than anything else.

Justifying his intervention, the minister said, “They (All India Tennis Association) had asked us for money citing a training programme designed around these two players — Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna. But suddenly they have come up with a completely new combination. This is just not done.” The AITA’s announcement of Lee-Hesh choice has put the country in a tight spot with only two days to go before we finalise our team/s for the London Olympics. Such a scenario calls for some beating sense into those stubborn enough to ignore reason.

“With two days left for the deadline, would not AITA be sending Paes with a youngster to represent India, the aforesaid action of AITA is depriving India of sending another team to London Olympics, the reasons for this may be explained,” Maken wrote in the letter.

But insiders say AITA has always backed Paes. It is not without reason. The governing body has its scores to settle with Bhupathi whose company, GloboSport, organised a few events which were attended by players like Serena Williams, Martina Hingis, Mary Pierce and Martina Navratilova. AITA had little role to play in these which irked the body. AITA president Anil Khanna, it is believed, thinks the tournaments undermined his position.

Maybe, that’s the reason why Khanna picked Paes ahead of the regular Bhupathi-Bopanna combo even though the former has not played with an Indian partner for the last six months.