IOA must rise above personal ambitions to safeguard sport

All eyes will be on the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne two days before the National Games in Gujarat. An Indian Olympic Association delegation is meeting the committee officials on September 27 to find a way out of the administrative mess it has got itself into. For the record, the IOC has issued a final warning that if IOA doesn’t hold its election under its existing constitution and per the Olympic Charter before the next IOC Executive Board (EB) meeting in December, it will face suspension. The IOC took this decision during its EB meeting on September 8 and sent a strongly-worded letter, something the IOA cannot ignore. However, members are still fighting among themselves instead of finding a solution. 

The IOA is torn between two factions. One is led by its secretary general Rajeev Mehta and the other by Adille Sumariwalla after former president Narinder Batra was forced to leave. To complicate matters, the IOC has refused to acknowledge the Mehta faction’s Anil Khanna as the acting president. 

Still, he continues in office, saying the Delhi High Court had asked him to. The IOA has not held its executive committee meeting as demanded by a majority of its members. The Mehta faction says the EC ceased to exist after its tenure ended on December 14 last year, while the IOC has insisted that the EC is still in place. Resolving issues amidst contrasting views is not easy. Even now, there is an exchange of letters without consensus between the two parties.

There is another issue that is waiting to flare up. If the election process starts, who would draw up the electoral college? Both factions had a bitter fight last year over it, and the matter eventually landed in court. It’s close to 10 months now since the IOA election matter was dragged to the Delhi High Court, yet there seems to be no amicable solution as directed by the IOC.

Instead, it has now reached the Supreme Court. The members seem more interested in holding on to their posts than considering sports’ overall development. The interests of sports and athletes should be paramount and non-negotiable. If the IOC bans IOA, athletes will suffer as their participation will be in danger. They will not be able to compete under the national flag. All IOA members must rise above their ambitions and interests and think beyond crony politics.