The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Tuesday unanimously rejected the draft National Sports Bill and termed it as “draconian, illegal and unconstitutional.”
The Officiating President of the IOA, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, said that the proposed Bill was against the Olympic Charter and in a long-term perspective the Bill was an attempt to facilitate the takeover of the National Sports Federations (NSFs) by the Union Government.
Stand endorsed
A near full house of the IOA Executive Council which met here, endorsed the stand already made known at an informal level by top IOA administrators during the past few weeks regarding the exposure draft of the Bill.
The IOA decided to meet the Prime Minister and the Sports Minister to air its apprehensions regarding the Bill. Asked whether the IOA might approach the courts even before the Bill was moved in Parliament, Malhotra said that might not be tenable.
The IOA once again asserted that the Centre was not empowered to legislate on sports which are a State subject. Unless sports are brought into the Concurrent List, it was not possible for the Sports Ministry to bring in a legislation, Malhotra said.
The ministry has stuck to its argument that there were enough constitutional provisions to legislate on sports in Parliament.
Asked whether the restriction of term of office-bearers, one of the contentious clauses in the draft Bill, was not part of the Olympic Congress declaration of 2009, and why the IOA was reluctant to accept it, the IOA Secretary-General, Randhir Singh, said it was only part of the Congress resolution and not a stipulation in the Olympic Charter.
Randhir, who is also the International Olympic Committee (IOC) member in India, said that the IOA had written to the IOC seeking its comments on the proposed Bill and would be forwarded to the ministry upon receipt.
The IOC had already cautioned the Government against bringing in stipulations that might be in breach of the Charter.
Peculiar situation
A peculiar situation had arisen in recent weeks with the ministry maintaining that the autonomy of the sports federations was sacrosanct even as it proposed to impose a number of restrictions that amounted to interference in the autonomy.
The matter has been complicated further by a large number of NSFs agreeing to the guidelines of the ministry even as they continued to oppose them in their public statements.
Malhotra said the federations had been arm-twisted by the Government in agreeing to the stipulations for annual recognition. Only in order to protect the interests of sportspersons had the federations fallen in line, but all of them had reiterated their objections.
The IOA would soon meet the ministry regarding its proposal to hold the South Asian Games here in October next year.
It has been estimated that around Rs. 60 to 70 crores would be sufficient to host the Games, but in view of the developments related to the Commonwealth Games it was decided to have detailed discussions with the Government.
Sad reflection
The matter of Suresh Kalmadi, President of the IOA, now in jail, came up in passing, with a section of the Executive raising the issue and stating that whatever had happened was “a sad reflection” on sports administration in the country.
To another question, Malhotra said there was no move to start any impeachment proceedings against Kalmadi, but whatever was required to be done under the constitution would be looked into.
