Clean Sports India, a movement for corrruption-free sports in the country, today accused Indian Olympic Association's acting president, V K Malhotra of deliberately delaying the process of getting India's ban from the Olympics lifted by the IOC for his "vested interest".
"Malhotra is refusing to go to Lausanne to meet IOC officials and resolve the issue of India's suspension with the IOC. He wants the government to relax age and tenure guidelines. He is not interested to get the suspension revoked and let Indian sportsmen again carry the national flag in the forthcoming events," CSI national convener, B V P Rao said in a statement.
The joint meeting between the representatives of the suspended IOA, the Sports Ministry and the IOC, to find a way to resolve the issue that led to India's ban from the Olympics, had been postponed because of the continuing standoff.
The meeting scheduled to be held at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on April 15 and 16, has now become uncertain as the representatives of the IOC-recognised IOA, V K Malhotra and Randhir Singh, and the Sports Ministry have not made headway over differences in age and tenure restrictions.
"Malhotra wants to continue with the age-old system of sports administration which is threatened by Sports Code. Sports Minister's good intention to bring new institutions like the Election Commission, Dispute mechanism and Ethics commission to bring about transparency and accountability is seen as a major threat to veteran adminstrators like Malhotra," Rao said.
