Olympics
IOA Executive members write to IOC about 'autocratic' ways of PT Usha
12 members of Executive Council of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) wrote to IOC about 'my way or highway' attitude of President PT Usha.
PT Usha is the president of the Indian Olympic Association.
The infighting in Indian Olympic Association (IOA) keeps getting uglier as the revolting Executive Council wrote a letter to senior IOC official Jerome Poivey accusing President PT Usha of running the organization in an "autocratic" manner.
The bitter confrontation in the Thursday's meeting regarding the appointment of Raghuram Iyer as the CEO was the last incident in the fighting between PT Usha and Executive Council.
PT Usha outrightly rejected EC's appeal of removing Raghuram Iyer from CEO's post.
In a letter to Poivey, the head of Institutional Relations and Governance at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who attended the stormy IOA Executive Council meeting via video-conference, the 12 EC members said they want the the national body to be governed "democratically".
Usha, on her part, has already said that the appointment of Iyer was done by strictly adhering to the IOA constitution in an EC meeting on January 5, which was video-graphed, and there was no reason to backtrack from that decision.
The EC members wrote to Poivey that the EC will advertise for the position of the IOA CEO.
"While appreciating your understanding, we are deeply concerned with the conduct of the IOA President, whose autocratic behaviour has always been regrettable, and we also regret subjecting you to such an experience which has become a norm for her to run down the views and concerns of her colleagues in every single meeting or opportunity," the letter from the EC members read.
The EC consists of Senior vice president Ajay H Patel, vice presidents RajLaxmi Deo and Gagan Narang, Treasurer Sahdev Yadav, Joint Secretaries Alaknanda Ashok and Kalyan Chaubey, other Executive Council members Amitabh Sharma, Bhupender Singh Bajwa, Rohit Rajpal, Dola Banerjee, Harpal Singh and Yogeshwar Dutt
"Her approach of 'My way or the Highway' contradicts the democratic principles envisioned in the IOA constitution. While we trust that you would believe the efforts of all Council members is to have an approach of inclusivity and consensus while aligning opinions in diversity," they said in the letter sent on Friday.
PT Usha has a different version of story
While EC said that Poivey didn't intervene in the Thursday's meeting calling it an internal matter of IOA, PT Usha has a different version of story.
Usha, on the other hand, had said after Thursday's meeting that Poivey counselled the revolting EC members to ratify Iyer's appointment.
"In the last minute (of the meeting), Jerome was telling them (the EC members) that you should not do like this, you should ratify this (appointment of Iyer). I am saying as I want to help you," Usha had said.
"They want to re-initiate the whole process. This can jeopardise India's chances of bidding for and hosting the 2036 Olympics. I am not going to accept this. I have told this to the IOC," she had asserted." She has already sent an e-mail to Poivey, stating that "the purported Minutes of Meeting jointly signed by the 10 EC members (on Thursday) is null and void," Usha raised her concerns.
