NEW DELHI: The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is open for a discussion with the Sports Ministry regarding proposed changes in the National Sports Code, according to a Press Trust of India report.
The IOA also indirectly warned the ministry that if the Central government does not take on board their inputs as well as that of the national sports federations, the IOA stands the risk of being suspended again by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
IOA president Narinder Batra has reportedly emailed the ministry over the issue, citing “a level of mistrust” in discussions in the past. He opined that any changes in the Sports Code must gain the approval of the IOC.
“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 the email accessed by PTI.
“Indian NOC was derecognised by IOC in 2012 and recognized again in 2014, one of the reasons for this de recognition was interference by Govt in the autonomy of NOC and NSFs of India…. if govt 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 said.
“We fail to understand what had changed between 2014 and now that we are again looking at changes in Sports Code.”
“Further when PK Deb was Secretary Sports in 2013, we as IOA and NSFs reached an agreement with him and which is minuted, the ministry has till date not taken any action on it, hence there is a level of mistrust as to how much the sanctity of the discussion with ministry can be trusted.”
“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 IOA to initiate and start this dialogue with you and Ministry on concerns of Ministry in relation to Sports Code and Good Governance issues so that we can sit together and resolve these issues amicably.
“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.”
