IOA infighting may hit India’s bids to host 2030 CWG, 2036 Olympics: PT Usha
Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha has warned that ongoing internal conflicts within the body could jeopardise India’s bids to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games (CWG) and the 2036 Olympic Games.
The IOA president is at loggerheads with the executive committee members including treasurer Sahdev Yadav, joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey and vice president Ajay Patel and others. The falling out happened over the appointment of Raghuram Iyer as the CEO.
India has officially bid for the 2030 edition of the CWG and is a favourite, while they have submitted an interest to host the Summer Olympics to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOA chief reckons that the needless infighting will have repercussions if India plays host to these multi-sports discipline events.
“We have bid for 2030 and 2036. If the EC continues this way, who will run the CWG secretariat? Who will attend meetings with the CWG and IOC? Nothing is happening now. Everything was smooth with the CEO, and the IOC was happy with us,” Usha told The Tribune on Friday.
“There is a Sports Ministry circular that says that every federation should appoint a CEO, so why can’t we have one in IOA? They are just troubling me and are not allowing me to work here as I have stopped them from doing whatever they wanted but since I have nothing to hide and I am not worried at all,” she added.
Usha further said the IOA treasurer Yadav and other EC members have not responded to her letters about resolving the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) observations that are still pending. Four federations — the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF), Hockey India (HI) Ski & Snowboard India (SSI) and Gymnastics Federation of India (GFI), together owe the IOA over Rs 3.1 crore. The amount was deleted from the IOA balance sheets over which CAG sent its observations.
“The CAG as a constitutional authority has made an observation. Who is the finance committee or the treasure to say that the CAG report is wrong? The President of India appoints the CAG so it means that people here are deciding that the President is wrong. I have written 3-4 letters to them to clear the balance sheet and so that we can call the EC meeting, but they have not responded to that as well. Whatever they are doing is illegal, they are not worried about anything,” Usha said.
