The next meeting of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Executive Council (EC) set for this week Thursday will be highly contentious with the rift between IOA President PT Usha and members of the council escalating within.
In January, the appointment of the CEO, Raghuram Iyer, which is still awaiting ratification by the Executive Council, triggered the wrangles, and other issues have been arising from the disbelief in the business sustenance to pay the IOA CEO a monthly salary of Ro 20 lacs which is considered to be exorbitant.
The majority, or more precisely, the twelve remaining EC members out of fourteen signed a letter which they directed to Usha which was aimed at extending the agenda of the meeting by fourteen further points topics of discussion.
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Some of these points are a need to discuss Usha’s behavior as the IOA President, her allegiance to the IOA Constitution, and how SOM were chosen. It followed such a procedure that Usha herself was one of the eight SOMs elected by the Athletes Commission under the amendment to the Constitution of the Asian Olympic Games Committee endorsed by the Supreme Court.
Several members of the EC also raised that Usha makes the decisions she is not in a place to do according to the council, and therefore has disrespected it on a number of occasions. To this end, Usha has also sent out five notices to the EC members, accusing them of breaching the Sports Code and copying them to the IOC and the Minister for Sports in India.
The dispute revolves around the contention over Iyer’s appointment where Usha asserts that prior consent of EC members was obtained and this she has been accused of lying by some of the critics. Some are of the view that Iyer’s wage package is not commensurate with his efforts and therefore the funding might stretch the finances of the IOA.
On the other hand, the IOC has in turn also provided the IOA with the need for an active and integrated National Olympic Committee as India is looking for opportunities for the 2036 Olympic Games.
The EC members are expected to, during the Thursday meeting, make a case for the formal approval of the CEO’s appointment and at the same time respond to Usha’s perceived breaches of the constitutional provisions. In case Usha continues to ignore these issues, some members have stated that the Senior Vice President is in ready to preside over the meeting instead of Usha.
The result of this meeting will be very important because it will shape how the IOA will operate in the future especially as the internal conflict strains leadership and the efforts made towards future international sporting events including indias Olympic bid for the year 2036. The ongoing discord may hamper the IOA’s reputation and prospects of achieving their objectives. This could also affect working relations with the International Olympic Committee and other partners. This meeting is that salient where it could provide the guidance in terms of required closure to the problem or would even worsen the schism that exists in the leadership of the IOA.
