Shortly before the Commonwealth Games (CWG) began at Glasgow, a startling doping scandal rocked the weightlifting contingent. Four national campers – N Ajith (71kg), Sairaj Pardeshi (88kg), Harcharan Singh (110kg) and Vanshita Verma (77kg) – tested positive for prohibited substances during the qualification period, forcing them out of the games. The fallout extended beyond individual suspensions. Under CWG regulations, the repeated anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) resulted in India losing a weightlifting quota, denying Dilbagh Singh a place in the squad despite earning selection on merit.There was more to follow. Men’s 73kg judoka Arun Kumar, winner of last year’s Taipei Asian Open gold medal, was provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned anabolic steroid. Days later came perhaps the biggest setback when Olympian and Birmingham CWG silver medallist Tulika Maan (+78kg) was provisionally suspended after accumulating three whereabouts failures within a rolling 12-month period.It wasn’t just the potential loss of medals. Six high-profile anti-doping setbacks across two disciplines shifted the conversation away from podium finishes to the country’s disgraceful relationship with doping. Yet, at a time when India is the world’s worst doping offender in sports, with its credibility at its lowest ebb, few want to openly discuss the elephant in the room.But looking away doesn’t make the problem disappear. That too at a time when Ahmedabad is preparing to host the next Commonwealth Games in 2030 and the country has formally declared its intention to host the 2036 Olympics.
A Disturbing Trend
According to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) 2024 Testing Figures Report, released in Dec 2025, India registered 260 adverse analytical findings (AAFs) from 7,113 samples collected during the year — a positivity rate of 3.6%. Among countries conducting more than 5,000 tests annually, India recorded the highest positivity rate in the world for the third consecutive year.The comparison with other sporting powers is sobering. France reported 91 violations from 11,744 tests, Russia 76 from 10,514 samples, while China found only 43 positives despite collecting over 24,000 samples. The United States recorded a positivity rate of just 1.1% after conducting more than 6,500 tests.The challenge is visible in athletics. The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) currently lists India as the country with the highest number of active sanctions worldwide. As many as 162 Indian athletes and support personnel are serving bans under the AIU framework, ahead of Kenya (148) and Russia (60).
New Substances. Old Pattern
The list of substances repeatedly surfacing in Indian cases reflects a worrying trend. Stanozolol, a synthetic anabolic steroid banned under WADA’s S1 category, continues to dominate anti-doping reports despite years of awareness campaigns. The drug is designed to promote muscle growth, accelerate recovery and reduce body fat.Recent athletes testing positive for stanozolol include former Youth World boxing champion Vinka, Asian Indoor rowing championships winner Gursewak Singh, junior sprint sensation Nipam Chauhan, wrestler Shubham and kabaddi player Akash Nathu Disale.Perhaps the most damaging among recent cases has been Nipam. India’s fastest junior woman sprinter now faces losing the silver and bronze medals she won at the Asian Under-20 championships in Hong Kong after testing positive for stanozolol.
Beyond Punishment
The govt has begun shifting its focus beyond athletes to the wider ecosystem that enables doping. At the inaugural conference of WADA’s ‘Global Anti-Doping Intelligence and Investigations Network’ (GAIIN) held recently in New Delhi, sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya outlined what could become the biggest overhaul of India’s antidoping policy.“Doping today is no longer an individual act but an organised multinational enterprise,” he said, adding that the proposed changes to the National Anti-Doping Amendment Act 2025 seek to bring coaches, doctors, suppliers and traffickers within the ambit of criminal liability.Draft provisions envisage prison terms ranging from five to 10 years, along with financial penalties for those involved in administering or trafficking banned substances. Athletes guilty only of anti-doping rule violations would continue to be dealt with under existing sporting regulations.Mandaviya underlined that India’s ambitions extend beyond medals. “India is committed not only to sporting excellence but to upholding the highest standards of integrity,” he said, adding that awareness, education and technology would remain central pillars of the nation’s clean sport programme.The govt has simultaneously expanded testing, almost doubling annual samples from around 4,000 in 2019 to nearly 8,000 over the past year. “Our testing programme has expanded significantly in recent years, complemented by a strategic shift towards risk-based and effectiveness-driven approaches. However, as we recognise, testing alone is no longer sufficient, and integration, intelligence and education must form the core of our antidoping framework,” said NADA director general Anant Kumar.
Athletes Lead Message
Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra has now become one of the strongest voices advocating athlete education. After launching the ‘Clean Sport’ initiative with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) through the Neeraj Chopra Foundation (NCF), Chopra said many athletes violate anti-doping rules because they simply lack reliable guidance.“Any doping violation is a concern because it impacts both the athlete and the sport. But not every case comes from an intention to gain unfair advantage. Sometimes athletes simply don’t know enough about what they are consuming or whom to trust for advice,” Chopra told TOI.Explaining his decision to champion the campaign despite a packed schedule, Chopra added: “Many athletes lack access to the right information on supplements, medications and anti-doping rules. Years of hard work can be put at risk by a small mistake.”
Beyond Black & White
Not everyone believes the present anti-doping framework is beyond criticism. Sports medicine expert Dr PSM Chandran argues that while cheating cannot be condoned, the current system also raises scientific and ethical concerns.“Doping may indeed be injurious to sport. Fair play matters, and cheating cannot be condoned. However, doping control in its present format is also injurious to athletes as it adheres rigidly to the WADA Code while often disregarding evidence-based medicine, proportionality and natural justice,” he said.He questioned whether every positive test necessarily translates into a measurable competitive advantage and called upon authorities to publish performance analyses of athletes before and after alleged doping periods.“Without such evidence, the claim that banned substances universally enhance performance remains belief, not science,” argued Chandran, president of the Indian Federation of Sports Medicine (IFSM). His views are likely to divide opinion, but they also underline the complexity of anti-doping policy, where science, ethics and sporting integrity often intersect.
Education, Not Fear
National gymnastics coach Manoj Rana believes India’s response must begin much earlier. “Indian sport has witnessed remarkable progress on the global stage, but the rising number of doping violations continues to tarnish these achievements. The answer is not only stricter punishments but stronger prevention,” Rana said.He points to intense pressure on athletes to win medals, secure govt employment and retain financial support, often without access to qualified nutritionists, sports scientists or evidence-based medical guidance.The problem is further complicated by changing training patterns. Many elite Indian athletes now train overseas, particularly in Eastern Europe and high-altitude centres in Russia, Turkey and Georgia. While foreign exposure has improved performances, investigators also believe some athletes operate outside India’s domestic testing ecosystem under uncertified local support personnel or littleknown foreign coaches . Indian authorities have previously terminated engagements with certain Eastern European coaches after sudden spikes in positive tests among elite campers.
Uneasy Contradiction
Ironically, at a time when India faces global scrutiny over doping, financial support for its anti-doping institutions has declined.The Union Budget reduced allocations for both NADA and National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL). NADA’s allocation fell from Rs 24.30 crore to Rs 20.30 crore, while the revised allocation for NDTL dropped from Rs 28.55 crore to Rs 23 crore, with the laboratory’s own budget reduced to Rs 5.55 crore.The cuts inevitably raise questions over whether India’s antidoping institutions can continue expanding testing, intelligence gathering and education precisely when they are needed most.
The Real Test
For India, therefore, Glasgow represents far more than another CWG. It is a reminder that hosting the CWG in Ahmedabad, securing the 2036 Olympics or staging the Asian Games in 2038 will ultimately depend not only on worldclass stadiums or impressive medal tallies, but on the credibility of the country’s sporting ecosystem.India has already demonstrated that it possesses the ambition, infrastructure and organisational capacity to emerge as a global sporting destination. But as the list of errant athletes continues to rapidly grow, the greater challenge is to provide a robust culture of clean sport. The danger of letting matters drift cannot be understated. Let us not forget that Russia was banned from international sports due to doping offences. A strict law is welcome. But authorities should also take a holistic and long-term view of the menace and find ways to fully eradicate it.
