New IOC chief Thomas Bach keen to get IOA reinstated

New IOC President Thomas Bach (R) with outgoing chief Jacques Rogge (L) (Getty Images)

Newly elected International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief, Thomas Bach, is said to be keen on returning the suspender Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to the international fold, reports Mail Today.

Bach’s appointment has been met with much positivity in India. P.K. Deb, secretary sports, told Mail Today that Bach and suspended IOA secretary Randhir Singh are “very good friends.”

Bach is the first Olympic gold medallist to have risen to the position of IOC president and as such is said to be sensitive and understanding of the needs of the athletes. Bach won the fencing gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Deb went on to add: “Randhir and Bach know each other well and we can look forward to the impasse in the IOA ending soon,” said the sports secretary.

He was also of the opinion that the mess would be sorted out soon, and also mentioned that much of the IOC’s refusal to budge on the issue had to do with the presence of the tainted Lalit Bhanot.

“There is no way the IOC will accept Bhanot as they do not want to deal with him,” he said.

Bhanot and former IOA president Suresh Kalmadi were part of the group that was charge-sheeted in the 2010 Commonwealth Games scandal.

The IOC has maintained that it will not re-admit the IOA back into the Olympic fold unless it gets its house in order by removing any tainted officials that continue to be present in the organization. This was a point that outgoing IOC chief Jacques Rogge was only too keen to emphasise time and time again to his Indian counterparts.

Going by Deb’s comments, it looks like the IOA is finally ready to heed the call of the world’s governing body and amend the clause pertaining to ethics wherein charge- sheeted and convicted officials can in no way be a part of the IOA.

October 31 is the deadline given by the IOC for the Indian body to amend the constitution and follow it up with free and fair elections to all posts, which need to be concluded by December 15.

A number of people have come under the scanner on the question of ethics, and the Sports Ministry is said to be personally looking into these cases individually.

The IOC has made it clear that any person charge-framed or convicted will be ineligible to contest the IOA elections.

But with instances of people being jailed for even minor offences such as drunken driving the ethics committee is said to evaluate the individual cases, if any.

Until recently, IOA officials had maintained an obstinate stance that the IOC could not prescribe the course of action to be taken by the nation’s Olympic body and had maintained that “law of the land” in no way prevented the tainted officials from running for the IOA’s posts.

The sports secretary’s provided his take on this saying: “As such there is unity in the IOA. And in the past there has been only one instance when the IOC actually formed an ad hoc body.”

The sports ministry is also happy that till now 41 national sports federations have fallen in line with the contentious sports code that it has set up.