The Indian Olympic Association maintained their defiant stand against the sports ministry on Tuesday, rejecting its tenure limitation guidelines for the office-bearers of the National Sports Federations (NSF).
During its special general body meeting on the day, the IOA unanimously resolved that neither they nor the NSFs would amend their constitutions to incorporate the guidelines. There was, however, a voice of dissent against the “dictator-like” functioning of IOA president Suresh Kalmadi.
“The special general body unanimously resolved that IOA and NSFs would decline to accept the government guidelines to protect their autonomy in accordance with IOC Charter and International Federations’ Statutes,” the IOA said in a statement on Tuesday.
While Kalmadi laid stress on the autonomy of the sports federations, at least one of his senior colleagues, vice-president Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, asked him to mend his own ‘arbitrary and dictatorial’ ways as head of the October 3 to 14 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee.
“It is not clear whether the government is receptive to our request. So we have to be on our guard,” Dhindsa said.
Dhindsa, a former Union sports minister and president of the Cycling Federation of India, illustrated his own experience as the chairman of the Games Village Committee. He said without his knowledge the mayor and deputy mayor were appointed to the committee and that he did not even know who the members were as he was seldom called for any meeting.
Dhindsa’s outburst against Kalmadi notwithstanding, the IOA completely ignored the sports ministry’s advise to discuss the tenure limitation issue in Tuesday’s meeting.
The ministry wants to fix the IOA and NSF president’s tenure at 12 years with or without the break. The secretary generals’ and the treasurers’ tenure is fixed at eight years at a stretch by the the ministry regulations, which also advocates a retirement age of 70.
“The Olympic Charter states clearly that only the National Olympic Committee has the right to decide the terms of office for the office-bearers and executive members,” Kalmadi noted.
“The ministry’s expense on training of India’s elite athletes for international competitions has been shown in grants to national sports federations, causing the impression that the IOA and national sports federations are doing nothing but wasting public money,” he added.
IOA vice-president Vijay Kumar Malhotra also termed the ministry’s decision “draconian” and pointed out the guidelines issued in 1975 were drafted during the days of the Emergency.