IOA’s stance puts India’s return to Olympic fold in jeopardy

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has maintained its stand on the contentious chargesheet clause saying it wants the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to adopt it for ensuring good governance.

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has reportedly maintained its stand on the contentious chargesheet clause saying it wants the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to adopt it for ensuring good governance. The IOA had in its Special General Body Meeting proposed a compromise formula to IOC’s directive asking it to bar chargesheeted persons from contesting elections. The proposal says that the sanction will apply to only those who are convicted and sentenced to a jail term of more than two years. Following the development, Sports Minister Jitendra Singh had written a letter to IOC chief Jacques Rogge to reject the suspended IOA’s stand. "I am disappointed with the outcome of IOA meeting which adopted resolution that allows tainted officials to contest elections. I think this kind of restriction can be misused and totally misplaced. I think it falls short of what IOC has proposed to IOA," Jitendra wrote in the letter to IOC President Jacques Rogge. The IOC observer was also not 100 percent satisfied with the development. "The sanctions against those who are chargesheeted, as proposed by the IOC, was not accepted. So I am not 100 percent happy if you go by the book," IOC observer Francisco Elizalde, who is also a member of the IOC ethics commission, had said. With PTI inputs