IOA trapped in its own constitution as prez-EC stand-off intensifies

CHENNAI: The Indian Olympic Association seems to be in a complete mess. The IOA president PT Usha has apparently written to the Executive Council and defended the decision to appoint the Chief Executive Officer, Raghuram Iyer, during the EC meeting on January 5. As per the letter, the EC had sent a mail to the president challenging the appointment of the CEO.

The EC members just after the announcement of the CEO appointment claimed that it was not ratified by the EC. The IOA president, however, has been insisting that EC members had objected only to the remuneration, which was addressed by the nomination committee and the president before the appointment. In a letter dated February 12, Usha said that the members had agreed to the appointment subject to “renegotiate the remuneration”.

Usha also claimed that the EC did not have any other objection and asked the EC if they had any upper limit in their mind. But, according to the letter, no one said anything and that she had not violated the provisions of the constitution. However, if the EC indeed had objected to the appointment (over remuneration as well) on January 5 meeting, as claimed, then the president should have addressed it.

One thing is clear though. The IOA is trapped in its constitution that was drafted by L Nageswara Rao. The IOA right now seems to be in a precarious position. The eligibility criteria of Rs 25 crore turnover and 10 years of experience too were inserted there. Some of the EC members even wanted to change it but because of the intervention of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), they could not.

The new constitution talks about appointment and only the Nomination Committee – IOA president Usha, Athletes’ Commission chairperson MC Mary Kom and IOC member in India Nita Ambani – has the power to nominate a CEO and no one else. Technically, the EC can discuss terms of appointment. “The IOA shall employ a CEO on terms the Executive Council deems appropriate.” At the same time powers are with EC. It needs to be seen how the IOA navigates through this. Another point that stood out in the letter was “it seems that this is at the behest of certain stakeholders who do not have the best interest of the IOA”.

This unwarranted spat is threatening to overshadow the one between former president Narinder Batra and secretary general Rajeev Mehta. In fact, the current crisis reminisces of old ones when officials kept writing letters against each other. The back-and-forth letters have projected the IOA in a very poor light too. What seems even more disconcerting is the fact that more than half of the members in the EC are sportspersons. There are Olympic medallists, Olympians, international players and icons – Usha, Kalyan Chaubey, Gagan Narang, Rohit Rajpal, Dola Banerjee, Yogeshwar Dutt, Mary Kom and Sharath Kamal – that’s more than half of the 15-member EC.

If this goes on for some more time the belief and faith that sportspersons make good administrators will soon turn into a myth. It is not that the president and the EC are divided over the appointment of the CEO but right from the day elections were over there were instances of friction in the EC.

The members also must be wary of the IOC as well. It has welcomed the appointment and had said that “this much-awaited appointment process has been finally completed, as part of the governance reforms which were adopted in the IOA’s Constitution and had to be implemented.” More acrimony will only make the IOA affairs murkier. Time to put the house in order.