In a move to mark his protest against the appointment of graft accused Suresh Kalmadi and Abhay Chautala as the organisation’s life presidents, senior functionary Narinder Batra on Friday resigned as the associate vice-president of the Indian Olympic Association.
Strongly expressing his reservations over the appointments, Batra, who recently became the International Hockey Federation (FIH) president, said he was strongly against the backdoor entry of Kalmadi and Chautala in the IOA.
"Keeping in mind that you (IOA) have not taken any action in withdrawing the nomination of life president of IOA even after 3 days of the AGM, hence as an expression of my protest and objection against the decision, I hereby submit my resignation from the post of associate vice-president of Indian Olympic Association," Batra wrote in a letter addressed to IOA president N Ramchandran and secretary general Rajeev Mehta.
"I have checked up with quite a few members and none of them have confirmed having received/seen any information 7 clear days prior to the 27th December, 2016 AGM of IOA in relation to appointment of life presidents in IOA.
"I do not support the decision taken by IOA General Assembly in relation to nomination of 2 life presidents and also take this opportunity to thank one of the Life President's who refused to accept the offer of IOA. The above definition's also do not allow for any backdoor entry," said Batra, who was the former Hockey India chief.
"I thank everyone for whatever brief association we may have had with each other in IOA."
Kalmadi and Chautala were elevated to the honorary position at the IOA's Annual General Meeting in Chennai on December 27, shocking the Indian sporting fraternity and leaving the Sports Ministry fuming.
The Sports Ministry has issued a show-cause notice to the IOA, threatening derecognition of the sports body if it does not reverse its decision. IOA has been given time till Friday to reply to the show-cause notice.
Soon after the tainted duo's elevation to the honourary posts, Batra had expressed his reservations and threatened to quit as the IOA associate vice-president if the appointments were not reversed.
While Kalmadi has declined the offer, Chautala continued to be defiant.
In his letter to the IOA top office-bearers, Batra also said that he was disturbed by the appointments which were taken in a haste without the consent of all the members.
He also mentioned statues of the IOA Constitution, which clearly states that it doesn't approve the appointments of any chargesheeted individuals.
"I am disturbed about a development in IOA AGM. I am told by the members present in the AGM that this particular discussion i.e nomination of life president took place as last item and was proposed and approved in a total of one minute without any discussion and after that the AGM was declared closed and while taking the decisions the statutes of IOA seem to be have been overlooked," he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
