In an effort to avoid a possible confrontation with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has postponed its Executive Council meeting scheduled for Saturday.
Even after the IOC had threatened to report National federations attending the January 19 meeting to the international federations concerned for initiating further action, Abhay Chautala who was elected president of the IOA at its December 5 elections, had stated that the meeting would go on as scheduled.
Apart from discussing the suspension imposed by the IOC, the meeting was expected to take up a proposal to rent out a portion of the Olympic Bhawan. Coupled with the suspensions of the boxing and taekwondo federations by the international federations, the IOC’s latest warning seemed to have had the desired effect on the IOA and the National federations as they backed off from a confrontation.
The IOC had written to the former acting president of the IOA, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, and its member in India, Randhir Singh, to suggest a dialogue among the IOC, Union Sports Ministry and the IOA in Lausanne to resolve the impasse.
It is clear that the IOC, Malhotra, Randhir and government representatives would not be able to carry forward the process of constitution amendments required to solve the issues without the support of the group headed by Chautala.
Constitution amendments need two-third majority of the members present and voting and if the December 5 meeting is anything to go by then the Chautala group will have a major say. The Chautala group was also working towards a compromise, according to sources.