There will be no Indian boycott of the Olympic Games. At least the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) made its stand clear on the issue on Friday following its Executive Council meeting.
The emergency Council meeting was not convened to discuss India's participation in the London Olympics nor was the issue on the agenda.
Yet, more than the agenda item, the media focus was on the speculation about an Olympic boycott. The lone agenda item was a series of letters from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about the status of Suresh Kalmadi and a few other office-bearers of the IOA.
“There is no question of a boycott,” said IOA Secretary-General Randhir Singh.
“There was one tragedy in Bhopal because of Union Carbide. We cannot allow another tragedy by denying the youth of the country a chance to participate in the Olympics,” he told The Hindu .
The IOA had protested against the sponsorship of the London Games by Dow Chemicals and had urged the IOC to remove the company as a sponsor because of its association with the Bhopal gas tragedy. The Union Sports Ministry had also recently written to the IOC seeking Dow's removal as a sponsor.
Selective leaks
Talking of the issue and the speculation surrounding India's participation, the acting president of the IOA, Vijay Kumar Malhotra said he was surprised at “selective leaks” to the media by the Sports Ministry that it may boycott the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games.
“While leaking such stories to the media, do the officials and their high ups in the ministry know its consequences,” Malhotra asked.
He said the IOA had written four letters to the ministry asking it to clear the Government's stand on Dow's sponsorship of the Games. “We have yet not received any reply.”
Regarding the status of Kalmadi, who had informed Malhotra through two letters that he was not in a position to continue his role as the IOA president, following his release from jail on bail, the meeting decided to accept his letters and endorsed the resolution of the General Assembly nominating Malhotra as acting president.
The IOC would once again be informed of the position relating to Kalmadi just as it had been informed through several letters by Malhotra. He had conveyed to the IOC that it was a legal matter between Kalmadi and the Government and the former had made it clear that he would not exert any authority on behalf of the IOA.
New set of rules
The IOC, in the meantime, had forwarded a new set of rules of the Ethics Commission. The rules had been circulated among the Commission members and they would be reviewed and approved by the General Assembly, Malhotra said.
The IOC had sought details of the charges framed against Kalmadi and other IOA office-bearers, in the Commonwealth Games scam.
It was also in receipt of a communication from the IOA Ethics Commission chairman, Justice U.C. Banerjee (retd.), informing it that the commission had issued show-cause notices to Kalmadi and others following a complaint from Clean Sports India.
Justice Banerjee informed the IOC that the commission consisted of judges of the highest court in this country and it was not expected that the decision of the commission be over-ruled by the Executive of the IOA.
