JOIN USIn a bid to chart out a roadmap to resolve the issue of India’s ban by International Olympic Committee (IOC), the government has decided to seek opinion of the National Sports Federations (NSF) on the contentious Sports Code.
The decision to seek the opinion of NSFs on the Sports Code was taken after a meeting of Sports Minister Jitendra Singh, Sports Secretary PK Deb, VK Malhotra, who was the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) acting chief before the controversial elections last month, and IOC member Randhir Singh.
The IOC had offered to hold a meeting with Sports Ministry representatives and Malhotra to discuss the ban imposed on IOA on the grounds of government interference.
“The meeting basically tried to look at a roadmap to resolve the issue of IOC’s ban on India. It was decided at the meeting that a letter will be sent to all NSFs asking for their comments on Sports Code,” a Sports Ministry source told PTI.
“The NSFs will have to tell whether they accept the Sports Code or not and if they accept whether they would amend their constitution in tune with the Code,” the source said.
It is understood that the exercise was to see first whether there can be a meeting of minds among the Sports Ministry, the NSFs and the IOA under Malhotra.
“The idea is to have discussions with the NSFs first. The IOA will have to sort out the issue with the ministry before going to the IOC. They have to come in the same page first,” the source said.
Significantly, the current IOA dispensation led by Abhay Singh Chautala was left out of the meeting. The IOC does not recognise Chautala-led IOA and had declared the controversial December 5 election “null and void”. The world body recognises the IOA led by Malhotra.