Chautala hopes IOC will lift suspension soon

New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS) Abhay Singh Chautala, newly elected president of the “suspended” Indian Olympic Association (IOA), Wednesday hoped to find a middle path that would be agreeable to both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the government of India.

Chautala said his first assignment was to form a committee that would present IOA’s case to the IOC so that the suspension was lifted at the earliest.

“We will form a committee to resolve the issue of suspension. The members of the committee to meet the IOC will be named in a day or two. They will try to convince the IOC and hopefully we will get the suspension lifted,” he said.

Chautala also said that a delegation of members will meet sports minister and try to convince the government about the problems the IOA was facing due to the National Sports Development Code.

“We hope that we will be able to convince the IOC to reconsider the suspension. We will also meet the sports minister and the prime minster and plead before them to drop the sports code which had brought us to this situation. We will work to lift this suspension as soon as possible,” he said.

Chautala said the IOA was the victim of the tussle between the IOC and the government of India.

“We have completed a free and fair election under three eminent retired high court judges. I want to re-iterate that we have not done anything wrong by going ahead with the polls. We have to obey the law of the land.

“It was an unanimous decision of the house that we have not done anything wrong. The IOA had to bear the brunt of the tussle between the government and the IOC. Now we will explain to the IOC the circumstances under which we had to go ahead with the elections,” he said.

IANS 2012-12-05 23:28:09