IOA-IOC meet postponed as differences persist

The continuing stand-off between the government and sports administrators over a controversial sports code today resulted in the postponement of a crucial joint meeting with the IOC, delaying India's re-entry into the Olympic movement.
The meeting, scheduled to be held at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on April 15 and 16, had to be postponed after the IOC-recognised representatives of the Indian Olympic Association, V K Malhotra and Randhir Singh, and the Sports Ministry failed to come to a consensus on the Sports Code.
In a letter to the Sports Minister Jitendra Singh today, acting president of IOA, Malhotra said the meeting with the IOC officials will have no significance until and unless the government clarifies its stand on the Sports Code, which amounted to the violation of the Olympic Charter.

"The IOC has invited me along with other senior members of the IOA to their headquarters for the discussion to resolve the ongoing crisis arising out of the suspension of IOA by IOC. This action of IOC was done on account of the fact that the Government Sport Code was followed as per the High Court's directives in the IOA elections," he wrote in the letter.
"The IOC has also desired that the government should also participate in the deliberations to be held in Lausanne. It therefore makes it pertinent for the government to clarify its stand on the Sports Code notified by it in January 2012."

The Sports Ministry's move to appoint a committee to re-draft the Sports Bill also did not go down well with Malhotra, who reiterated IOA's position against government's intereference in the functioning of sports bodies.
"Also, the government needs to clarify its latest position about constitution of a committee to re-draft the Sports Bill, which encompasses the earlier guidelines and regulations imposed by it on the IOA and all National Sports Federations," he said.