Coming Thursday, the breach between IOA president PT Usha and EC members is set to deepen the tense Indian Olympic Association Executive Council meeting.
Since CEO Raghuram Iyer’s hiring in January, Usha and the EC members have been at odds. The executive board has not yet approved the decision, which is why the EC meeting on Wednesday was scheduled.
On Tuesday, however, Usha received a signed letter from 12 of the 14 EC members requesting that she add 14 more items to the meeting’s schedule. The letter states, “to discuss and decide on the need for reporting the conduct of the IOA President to the Ethics Commission of the IOA. Scope of the powers of the President under the IOA Constitution and selection process adopted for selecting Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM) and their participation in the election of the IOA.”
According to the newly updated IOA constitution, which was written under the supervision of the Supreme Court and authorised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Usha was one of the eight SOMs chosen by the Athletes Commission to serve as voting members of the IOA General Assembly. Senior Vice President Ajay Patel, Vice Presidents Rajlaxmi Deo and Gagan Narang, Treasurer Sahdev Yadav, Joint Secretaries Kalyan Chaubey and Alaknanda Ashok, and Members Amitabh Sharma, Bhupender Singh Bajwa, Harpal Singh, Rohit Rajpal, Dola Banerjee, and Yogeshwar Dutt wrote, “We would like to emphasise that the points mentioned above are important and it is necessary to have deliberation on these.”
Members of the EC and Usha have accused one another this month. Five EC members have received letters from the IOA President accusing them of holding their posts in contravention of the Sports Code; a copy of the notice has also been marked to the IOC and Sports Minister Manshukh Mandaviya. In response, several members have questioned Usha’s election as IOA president, pointing to clauses in the IOA charter. Additionally, they have charged that the president frequently violates the constitution and makes “unilateral decisions bypassing the EC.”