M A I N   N E W S

Huge embarrassment as IOC suspends Indian Olympic body
MS Unnikrishnan/TNS

New Delhi, December 4
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board that met in Lausanne on Tuesday is learnt to have suspended the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) because of the application of the Sports Code in the IOA elections, though the IOA had not received an official communication in this regard till late evening.

“We have not received any communication from the International Olympic Committee. If such a thing has happened, it was not due to the fault of the IOA. We had been opposing the Sports Code of the Government from Day One and had written to the Prime Minister to scrap it when we received a letter from the IOC threatening action. If the Government has not acted on our plea, the IOA should not be blamed for the IOC action,” IOA acting-president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

“If the IOA has been actually suspended by the IOC, we will discuss it in tomorrow’s general council meeting (prior to the IOA elections, scheduled at 2 pm), and decide the future course of action,” Malhotra said.

The IOC had threatened the IOA of penal action if the Sports Code was applied in the IOA elections, but the Olympic body was forced to include the Sports Code in the election process following a Delhi High Court order. As a last and desperate measure, the IOA requested the IOC to permit two of its senior members - RK Anand and Hockey India secretary-general Narinder Batra -- to visit Lausanne to explain the IOA’s stand on the Sports Code and the related controversy, but the IOC did not respond to the IOA request.

“Even if the IOC Executive Board has recommended the IOA’s suspension, it has to be ratified by the General House, and that meeting will take place only a month or two later. In any case, what was the IOA’s fault? We have not violated the Olympic Charter in the IOA elections. How could the IOC suspend the IOA without hearing us out? We wanted to send two representatives to explain our position, but they did not allow it.

The secretary in the Sports Ministry, PK Deb, had written to the IOC, seeking its presence in holding a meeting among the IOC, the Sports Ministry and the IOA to sort out the Sports Code issue. But the IOC did not respond.

In any case, what was the hurry to suspend the IOA without giving us a chance to explain out views?” said IOA senior vice-president Tarlochan Singh.

He said the matter to suspend IOA was 20th on the IOC agenda, but surprisingly, it was deliberated first. Tarlochan Singh also blamed the IOC member in India, Randhir Singh, for not pleading the IOA’s case. “It was his responsibility to attend the IOC meeting and defend the country’s interest,” Tarlochan said.

The IOC’s suspension of the IOA will not have any immediate fallout as the matter will hot up only when the next Asian Games or the Olympic Games come around.

The IOC has been warning the IOA against application of the Sports Code in its elections which it felt would amount to “outside interference” and was in violation of the Olympic Charter. But the IOA did not think that the IOC will actually carry out its threat of suspension/de-recognition till IOC president Jacques Rogge and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) president Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah sent a joint letter to IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra and secretary-general Randhir Singh on November 23, warning of serious repercussions if the Olympic Charter was violated in any manner in the IOA elections.

Malhotra, in his reply to the IOC letter on November 29, had assured that “the autonomy of the IOA shall be preserved and protected, and no interference of any economic, political angle shall be permitted”. He had also promised that the IOA elections would be held preserving the Olympic Charter. Hence, the IOC action has come as a shocker to Malhotra.

The IOA was forced to include the Sports Code in the election process, following an order by the Delhi High Court on September 13, which said: “The elections of the Executive Committee of the IOA shall be held after compliance of the provisions of the constitution/memorandum/byelaws of the IOA, as well as the Sports Code of the Government of India. (The Sports Code bars those above 70 or those who have completed two consecutive terms in a particular post from contesting).”

Though the IOA has been opposing imposition of Sports Code on it as well as the National Sports Federations (NSFs) ever since it was mooted two years ago by the Sports Ministry, the Delhi High Court ruling became binding on it.

But so far, the need to apply the Sports Code in the IOA elections has not arisen as all the top office-bearers have been elected unopposed, including president Abhay Singh Chautala. And those who are still in the fray are expected to pull out on election day, tomorrow.

What went wrong

• The IOC had warned the IOA against application of the Sports Code in its elections, which it felt would amount to “outside interference” and was in violation of the Olympic Charter
• The IOA’s suspension will not have any immediate fallout, as the matter will hot up only when the next Asian Games or the Olympic Games come around