As expected, the much-awaited Indian Olympic Association (IOA) general body meeting ended without a concrete solution to the contentious issue of ‘ethics’ that barred charge-sheeted persons from contesting elections. What it managed, however, was to dilute the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) revised draft constitution, and refer it to its ethics commission. Whether or not the IOC agrees is to be seen.
According to a top official, within a day or two the new constitution will be sent to the IOC for approval and it might take another fortnight for the IOC to reply. This in turn might push the election date from proposed September 29 to sometime in October. The IOC set a deadline of September 29.
“We will send the new constitution to the IOC and they will take around two weeks to revert back. Thus we might have to push the elections date to somewhere in October,” said a source.
According to insiders, the IOC members who attended the meeting seemed satisfied by most of the proceedings except for the ‘charge-sheeted clause’. This was echoed by chairman of the meeting S Reghunathan during a press conference. “We have followed the Peoples Representation Act of Parliament. We have modified the ‘chargesheet clause’ and now only those persons who have been convicted by a court for a jail term of two or more years will not be able to contest elections and will be disqualified automatically,” Reghunathan said.
Francisco Elizalde, an honorary member of the IOC from Philippines, Jerome Poivey (IOC Head of Institutional Relations and Governance in NOC Relations Department) and Haider Farman, Director of Asian Games Department in the OCA, were observers at the meeting.
Elizalde who addressed a press conference later said the meeting was ‘satisfactory’. “Ideally, officials who have been tainted in corruption and criminal cases should not have been there in sports... The alternative proposed by the IOA is very good.”
“There is no guarantee that the IOC will accept these changes. We will submit a report from an insider’s perspective. I have a positive feeling and I think it is another step towards India’s return to the Olympic fold. IOC will get back within two weeks’ time,” Elizalde said.
As for the meeting, it did have its share of drama and arguments. Most vocal of the lot were lifetime president of judo federation Jagdish Tytler and KPS Gill who protested, saying that the IOA cannot dilute the ethics issue.
If Gill and Haryana had court orders to attend the meeting, the National Rifles Association of India headed by Raninder Singh did not, due to which they were ousted. Around 161 of the 182 members attended the meeting.
The IOA also accepted IOC’s directive on age and tenure of its office bearers while also agreeing to prune down the size of the Executive Council. It constituted a three-member Election Commission — retired Justices M R Kalra, S N Sapra and Lokeshwar Prasad will be the members.
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