IOA meeting on Dec 8; Malhotra seeks postponement

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Saturday issued a notice to call its General Body Meeting on December 8 and amend its constitution as per the diktats of International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Interestingly, on the same day, the IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra shot a letter to the IOC chief Thomas Bach to seek time till the second or third week of January to hold the special general meeting because of ongoing assembly elections in five states in India.

However, sources revealed that Malhotra did not discuss the matter with top IOA officials. He only informed them about his decision to write the letter to the IOC.

 The IOA, however, said they would go ahead with their scheduled meeting on December 8 but if IOC agrees to Malhotra’s request they could postpone the meeting.

“We will be holding our special general body meeting on December 8. The notice to all the National Sports Federations and the State Olympic Associations have been issued by me,” said S Reghunathan, who had chaired the last two meetings.

“We will be going by the date we have set for the meeting and if IOC accepts Mr Malhotra’s request, we will shift it to January.”

The IOA had been left with no option but to follow instructions of the IOC, which would not compromise its stand to include the clause for the charge-framed individuals in the IOA’s amended constitution.

The suspended National Olympic Committee’s continued resistance against the clause had forced the world body in its previous communication, dated November 15, to issue an ultimatum to the IOA of making necessary amendments before December 10 or face derecognition.

In his letter to Bach, Malhotra cited the involvement of several IOA members in the assembly elections for his request and promised IOC that all its concerns would be taken care of.

“I want to assure you that IOA will address all the concerns mentioned in the communication (sent on November 15 by the IOC) and will sort out the matter to the satisfaction of the IOC,” Malhotra wrote.

“The IOA is not averse of amending the constitution but it cannot be done by December 10 as desired by the IOC.

“The reason being that election process for the five state assemblies including that of Delhi is on and most of the members of the IOA at the moment are very busy with these elections.”

Mahotra said the ‘Code of Conduct’ has been enforced by the Election Commission of India which restrains holding of such meetings.

“In these circumstances, the IOA request the IOC to give it a time till January 2014 to decide and come up with the desired amendments. The IOA assures the IOC that it will convene an extraordinary general body meeting by the second or third week of January 2014 and to amend the constitution to the satisfaction of all,” Malhotra wrote.