Please stop promoting and shielding corrupt officials: Tytler

New Delhi: Former IOA vice-president Jagdish Tytler on Saturday urged the National Sports Federations of the country to avoid "promoting and shielding" tainted officials who are in charge of the NSFs.

"Right from day one, I have been repeatedly appealing to everyone to keep sports clean. I had also mentioned that the future of Indian sports persons and reputation of India should not be put at stake at the cost of promoting and shielding persons under trial for corruption charges in sports administration," Tytler said referring to Lalit Bhanot, who has been charged for offences of forgery, cheating and conspiracy in a Commonwealth Games-related graft case. "Further, the IOC`s ethic commission had also specifically named a few people and instructed to keep them away from election process but we still insisted on not listening to anybody. I fail to understand why we are aliging with people who are going against IOC directions." "It is time to show that no man is indispensable neither me nor you or Lalit Bhanot and people like him; let the system take its own course, let us not spoil it. Let us save ourselves from being embarrassment for our future generation," he added. Bhanot has been unanimously elected as the secretary general while Abhay Singh Chautala was elected as the president of the IOA in its cotroversy-marred polls earlier this month. Tytler also criticised the IOA for going ahead with their elections despite IOC`s suspension threat. "Despite of all, we went into elections and saw the consequences. On 4th of December 2012 Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was suspended putting the whole nation at shock and sportspersons at panic," he wrote in his letter to the all the NSFs of the country. Tytler asked former IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra and secretary general Randhir Singh to take corrective steps to take Indian sports out of the mess. "The IOC requested Randhir Singh to take all necessary measures and if appropriate, any legal action at national level against these individuals in order to protect all assets and properties of the suspended IOA. "Since IOC has only recognised Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Randhir Singh, it is high time that these two people should sit together and find a way to get out of this mess," he said. "I personally believe that logically these two people should take the initiative and act as IOC Ambassdors and initiate talks with the Indian Government," said Tytler, who is the president of the Judo Federation of India. PTI