Indian Olympic Association slams Sports Ministry, asks for dialogue on Sports Code

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has asked the Sports Ministry to begin a dialogue on the proposed changes in the draft Sports Code if the government does not want the International Olympic Association Committee (IOC) to derecognise the Indian association again.

IOA president Narinder Batra, who wrote an e-mail to the ministry on this issue, also said any changes to the Sports Code need the consent of the IOC.

He also lashed out at the government for not holding discussions with it or the National Sports Federations (NSF) on the draft Sports Code.

“The ministry had given an affidavit in an ongoing case in Delhi High Court in early 2017 in relation to draft New Sports Code that it will discuss the draft code with all the stakeholders. Nothing has been done till now in this regard and no discussion has even been initiated with the main stakeholder IOA till date or any other stakeholder,” Batra wrote in his letter.

“The IOA was de-recognised by the IOC in 2012 and recognised again in 2014. One of the reasons for this de-recognition was interference by the government in the autonomy of IOA and NSFs of India. If the government does not want IOA de-recognised again and does not want teams to go to 2020 Tokyo Olympics under IOA flag, then all changes to the code after agreement with IOA will need to have consent from IOC,” he added.

Batra also pointed out the points of the meeting IOA officials had with the then sports secretary P.K. Deb in April 2013.

“We fail to understand what has changed between 2014 and now that we are again looking at changes in Sports Code,” he said.

Batra also asked the ministry to schedule a meeting with IOA members to resolve the issues.

“We are very open to understand and resolve the issues. From our main committee we will form a committee of five persons headed by president IOA along with four senior members of the IOA to initiate and start this dialogue with you and the ministry on concerns of the ministry in relation to Sports Code and good governance issues so that we can sit together and resolve these issues amicably,” he said.

“Kindly advise on time for meeting with the five members from IOA to discuss on your concerns in Sports Code and to sit together and sort them out in a cordial and amicable manner,” he added.