2012 started with jubilation but ended with shame for the country’s Olympic movement as barely months after India came up with its best-ever medal haul at the Olympic Games in London, the IOA was slapped with a suspension by the IOC for not adhering to the Olympic Charter during its elections.
The development, a result of the internal power struggle in the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), has put the country in an embarrassing position.
But it is the athletes who had to bear the brunt most of the unfortunate situations as the suspension has put a question mark over their very participation in Olympic events under the tri-colour and can only participate under the IOC banner.
It also meant that the IOA will stop receiving International Olympic Committee (IOC) funding and its officials will be banned from attending Olympic meetings and events.
The IOC’s decision to ban IOA in its executive board meeting in Lausanne earlier this month has exposed the dirty politics in the national Olympic body.
The IOC said that it decided to ban India as the IOA had failed to comply with the Olympic Charter and also allowed a tainted official to contest the elections for a top post.
The decision was largely expected after the IOA decided to go ahead with its elections under the government’s Sports Code, defying the IOC’s diktat to hold the polls under the Olympic Charter.
The suspension triggered off a blame game not only within the IOA, but also between the government and the national Olympic body.
Holding India’s nominated representative in IOC, Randhir Singh, who was in the race for IOA president’s post but withdrew later, responsible for the entire mess, current IOA chief Chautala said, “He had misled the IOA, the IOC and the government. Being an IOC member from the country, he should have defended the IOA and pleaded our case before the IOC.”
Former IOA acting president, V.K Malhotra, however, blamed the government for imposing the Sports Code on them.
“The government is responsible for this. We want the government, the IOC and the IOA to sit together and resolve the issue so that India’s suspension is lifted. We had no option but to hold the elections under the Sports Code because of the High Court order,” Malhotra said.
But the Sports Ministry was quick to dismiss the allegations and instead put the blame on the IOA, saying that there was no conflict between the government’s Sports Code and the Olympic Charter and the ban could have been avoided had the national Olympic body amended its constitution.
“The decision to suspend India was an unfortunate one.
But it could have been avoided had the IOA amended its constitution. It is false to say that the Sports Code was the reason behind India’s suspension. There is no conflict between the Sports Code and the Olympic Charter,” Sports Minister Jitendra Singh had said after IOA’s suspension.
The Ministry also clarified that the National Sports Development Code included such age and tenure guidelines for office-bearers of sports bodies as are enshrined in the Olympic Charter itself.
The IOA’s position has always been that of opposing the Sports Code, but it says it was compelled to abide by the Delhi High Court order to hold the elections under the specified code.
The ban earned India the dubious distinction of being among a handful of countries, which have faced suspension from the IOC. But the IOA seemed unfazed by the embarrassing incident.
Disregarding the ban, a defiant IOA, just a day after it’s suspension, showed utter disregard to the IOC’s warning that the election would be treated “null and void”, and went ahead with the polls in which Chautala was elected unopposed as president, while scam-tainted Lalit Bhanot was elected the secretary general, also unopposed.