Faced with the threat of suspension by the International Olympic Committee, top IOA officials on Friday had a meeting with sports minister Jitendra Singh in a bid to find a solution to the code dispute surrounding the upcoming election.
A five-member delegation, led by president-designate Abhay Singh Chautala, met the minister in his chamber and the nearly two-hour-long meeting was described as “constructive and fruitful” by the officials.
Jitendra Singh said the code to be followed in the December 5 election was largely a dispute between the IOC and IOA and the government was just trying to play a helping hand.
“The government is just providing a helping hand to the IOA to resolve the matter. The whole mess is between the IOA and the IOC and sports ministry or the government is not a part of it”, Singh said.
“The Sports Code is exactly the same as the IOC Charter. It is in the same terms as our code regarding age, term or the clean practices. So there is no problem there.
“It is an internal matter between the IOA and IOC, we are willing to help IOA and we are ready to sit with IOC to discuss any matter. If the IOC comes here, we will sit down and resolve the issue”, the Minister said.
Singh said the Government has written a letter to the IOC but no reply had come from the International sports body.
“The government has already written a letter to the IOC inviting them to come here and have a meeting. Sadly, we have not got any reply from them. Anyway, the IOA has all our support”, Singh said.
Apart from Chautala, IOA Acting president VK Malhotra, Hockey India General Secretary Narinder Batra, eminent lawyer and President of Jharkhand Olympic Association, RK Anand and Anurag Thakur, president of Himachal Olympic Association were the other members of the delegation.
“We had a good and fruitful meeting. I requested him (the Minister) that the situation is very complicated. On one side, there is the Olympic charter and on the other is government sports code and there is the High Court,” VK Malhotra said.
“All our elections are conducted according to these. So the government should intervene and assure the IOC that we will go by the IOC Charter. The government should help. The Prime Minister has to decide. Now, if anything goes wrong the government will be responsible,” Malhotra said.
The IOA would also be sending a two-member delegation to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne to meet top officials and resolve the vexed issues surrounding its upcoming elections.
Batra and Anand will be the two members and they are expected to fly to Lausanne soon to explain IOA’s position.
The IOC had on Thursday made it clear that it will propose the suspension of IOA in its Executive Board Meeting early next month if the upcoming IOA elections are held under the government’s Sports Code.
In a letter written by IOC Director General Christophe de Kepper to IOA acting chief V K Malhotra, the world body rejected IOA’s request to send an international delegation to resolve the issue.
CHAUTALA URGES RANDHIR SHOULD QUIT
Indian Olympic Association’s president-elect, Abhay Singh Chautala today demanded the resignation of incumbent secretary general Randhir Singh for misleading the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the election process for his own interest.
‘Randhir Singh had on a daily basis issued the threat that IOC will impose a ban on IOA if it follows the government’s sports code. I would like to ask him why was he in a hurry to conduct the elections in October when our demands were to hold it in December.
‘It was because of this attitude all sorts of confusions have arisen. Otherwise, things were going on smoothly. The election process was as per Randhir’s notification. He wanted early elections to the NOC. Since he was completing his four-year term, he wanted the polls to be held at the earliest. But the AGM wanted it in December. Subsequently he only issued the notification regarding the elections,’ Chautala said.
Chautala said, as an IOC member, Randhir’s responsibility was to resolve the issue with the international body.
A five-member delegation, led by president-designate Abhay Singh Chautala, met the minister in his chamber and the nearly two-hour-long meeting was described as “constructive and fruitful” by the officials.
Jitendra Singh said the code to be followed in the December 5 election was largely a dispute between the IOC and IOA and the government was just trying to play a helping hand.
“The government is just providing a helping hand to the IOA to resolve the matter. The whole mess is between the IOA and the IOC and sports ministry or the government is not a part of it”, Singh said.
“The Sports Code is exactly the same as the IOC Charter. It is in the same terms as our code regarding age, term or the clean practices. So there is no problem there.
“It is an internal matter between the IOA and IOC, we are willing to help IOA and we are ready to sit with IOC to discuss any matter. If the IOC comes here, we will sit down and resolve the issue”, the Minister said.
Singh said the Government has written a letter to the IOC but no reply had come from the International sports body.
“The government has already written a letter to the IOC inviting them to come here and have a meeting. Sadly, we have not got any reply from them. Anyway, the IOA has all our support”, Singh said.
Apart from Chautala, IOA Acting president VK Malhotra, Hockey India General Secretary Narinder Batra, eminent lawyer and President of Jharkhand Olympic Association, RK Anand and Anurag Thakur, president of Himachal Olympic Association were the other members of the delegation.
“We had a good and fruitful meeting. I requested him (the Minister) that the situation is very complicated. On one side, there is the Olympic charter and on the other is government sports code and there is the High Court,” VK Malhotra said.
“All our elections are conducted according to these. So the government should intervene and assure the IOC that we will go by the IOC Charter. The government should help. The Prime Minister has to decide. Now, if anything goes wrong the government will be responsible,” Malhotra said.
The IOA would also be sending a two-member delegation to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne to meet top officials and resolve the vexed issues surrounding its upcoming elections.
Batra and Anand will be the two members and they are expected to fly to Lausanne soon to explain IOA’s position.
The IOC had on Thursday made it clear that it will propose the suspension of IOA in its Executive Board Meeting early next month if the upcoming IOA elections are held under the government’s Sports Code.
In a letter written by IOC Director General Christophe de Kepper to IOA acting chief V K Malhotra, the world body rejected IOA’s request to send an international delegation to resolve the issue.
CHAUTALA URGES RANDHIR SHOULD QUIT
Indian Olympic Association’s president-elect, Abhay Singh Chautala today demanded the resignation of incumbent secretary general Randhir Singh for misleading the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over the election process for his own interest.
‘Randhir Singh had on a daily basis issued the threat that IOC will impose a ban on IOA if it follows the government’s sports code. I would like to ask him why was he in a hurry to conduct the elections in October when our demands were to hold it in December.
‘It was because of this attitude all sorts of confusions have arisen. Otherwise, things were going on smoothly. The election process was as per Randhir’s notification. He wanted early elections to the NOC. Since he was completing his four-year term, he wanted the polls to be held at the earliest. But the AGM wanted it in December. Subsequently he only issued the notification regarding the elections,’ Chautala said.
Chautala said, as an IOC member, Randhir’s responsibility was to resolve the issue with the international body.