Top IOA officials meet Sports Minister to discuss code issue

[1]

Faced with the threat of suspension by the International Olympic Committee, top IOA officials today 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 V K Malhotra, Hockey India General Secretary Narinder Batra, eminent lawyer and President of Jharkhand Olympic Association, R K 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," V K 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 IOC headquarter 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 and threatened to intiate the process of suspending the Indian sports body.

The world body reiterated its directive to the IOA as expressed in its letter on November 23 to present its position to the IOC by November 30 or face suspension.

It is learnt that IOA Acting President Malhotra has already responded to the IOC's latest letter in which he has explained the IOA's stand and why it was compelled to follow the High Court's order in relation to the polls.

The elections to the IOA have been marred by controversy over the issue of under which framework they would be held and this had led to the resignation of IOA-appointed Election Commission Chairman S Y Quraishi and later presidential candidate Randhir Singh withdrawing from the race.

Taking into account Delhi High Court's order, the Quraishi-led Commission had ruled that the IOA polls would be held under the government's Sports Code, which in turn, invited IOC's directive to the IOA to "exclusively" apply the Olympic Charter and the IOA Constitution.

Quraishi, a former Chief Election Commissioner of India, then stepped down, citing the backtracking by the IOA to apply the Sports Code. Justice (retd) Anil Dev Singh was appointed by the IOA in his place.

Quraishi's resignation led to the postponement of the elections from November 25 to December 5, but a relentless IOC was not happy with the confusion surrounding the code under which the polls would be held.

Randhir Singh, who is an IOC member and Secretary General of both the OCA and the IOA, withdrew his nomination for the post of president, saying that since the world body had said the polls would not be recognised if they are held under the Sports Code, he cannot go against the institution he belongs to.

IOA's position has been that it has been opposing the Sports Code from the beginning but will have to abide by the Delhi High Court order to hold the elections under the Sports Code.