Terming International Olympic Committee's suspension of IOA a ‘black day’ for India, president-elect Abhay Singh Chautala lashed out at Randhir Singh and said the latter ‘conspired against the nation and its sportspersons’.
‘Randhir is a traitor. He conspired against the nation, its spokespersons. Being an IOC official he should have helped the country, but he had vested interests and put the country in such a mess today,’ Chautala alleged during a press conferenceHolding Randhir responsible for the national Olympic body's suspension, Chautala said the veteran sports administrators should immediately resign from his post in IOC.
He said IOC's decision to impose the ban on a ‘democratic country’ like was not correct. ‘It's an unfortunate incident that a democratic country like India has been banned by IOC. The decision taken by IOC is not at all correct. Four days back, our acting IOA chief V K Malhotra had written to IOC that we were just following High Court’s directive and the election is happening as per the IOA constitution. We had requested them to send their observers for the election,’ Chautala said.
‘They didn’t send anyone and today put a ban on India. The person responsible for all this is Randhir Singh. Randhir misled IOA all the way. When he came to know that he doesn’t have the numbers, he started threatening us with IOC mails.’
He further said: ‘He, through IOC, sent us numerous mails and misled us. He has hurt the sentiments of the country. He has let the nation down. The government is also to be blamed somewhere as they made us follow their guidelines. So, I want to blame both Randhir and the government for the current mess.’
Asked whether IOA would appeal to CAS, Chautala said, ‘We were to send two of our officials, Narinder Batra and R K Anand, to Lausanne to make our stand clear. They didn’t revert back to us. We will request IOC to listen to us first and then take action. I am confident that they will lift the ban after hearing us.’
‘Randhir is a traitor. He conspired against the nation, its spokespersons. Being an IOC official he should have helped the country, but he had vested interests and put the country in such a mess today,’ Chautala alleged during a press conferenceHolding Randhir responsible for the national Olympic body's suspension, Chautala said the veteran sports administrators should immediately resign from his post in IOC.
He said IOC's decision to impose the ban on a ‘democratic country’ like was not correct. ‘It's an unfortunate incident that a democratic country like India has been banned by IOC. The decision taken by IOC is not at all correct. Four days back, our acting IOA chief V K Malhotra had written to IOC that we were just following High Court’s directive and the election is happening as per the IOA constitution. We had requested them to send their observers for the election,’ Chautala said.
‘They didn’t send anyone and today put a ban on India. The person responsible for all this is Randhir Singh. Randhir misled IOA all the way. When he came to know that he doesn’t have the numbers, he started threatening us with IOC mails.’
He further said: ‘He, through IOC, sent us numerous mails and misled us. He has hurt the sentiments of the country. He has let the nation down. The government is also to be blamed somewhere as they made us follow their guidelines. So, I want to blame both Randhir and the government for the current mess.’
Asked whether IOA would appeal to CAS, Chautala said, ‘We were to send two of our officials, Narinder Batra and R K Anand, to Lausanne to make our stand clear. They didn’t revert back to us. We will request IOC to listen to us first and then take action. I am confident that they will lift the ban after hearing us.’