The infighting at the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) continues to take ugly turn as an PT Usha and Executive council members are locked in a standoff over the appointment of CEO Raghuram Iyer.
President PT Usha and EC members had another heated confrontation in the meeting yesterday.
The main agenda of the meeting called by Usha was ratification of Iyer’s appointment as CEO on January 5 but it ended in a deadlock. With both sides sticking to their earlier stands, the bitter feud is expected to worsen in the coming days.
“They want to re-initiate the whole process, they want to re-advertise afresh. It’s like saying we don’t want this person and let us start the process from the scratch,” a furious Usha said after the meeting.
“This process (of appointment of CEO) took two years and now they want to start all over again. This is going to have repercussions (from the IOC). It can jeopardise India’s chances of bidding for and hosting the 2036 Olympics,” she warned.
“I am not going to accept this. I have told this to the IOC (International Olympic Committee). I am not a quitter, I am not going anywhere without cleaning the IOA,” she asserted.
Despite PT Usha’s anger, the member of the EC issued a statement saying that they have decided to re-initate the process of appointment of the CEO.
“The ratification of Mr lyer as the CEO was not approved. Further it was decided that process of the appointment of the CEO be re-initiated with new terms of reference,” the statement said.
Interestingly, IOC Director Jerome Poivy joined the meeting online and watched the confrontation unfold. However, the IOC director didn’t comment on the situation terming it as ‘an internal matter of the IOA’.
“The Members further, in the presence of the IOC Director, stated that the process for the advertisement of the CEO should be initiated at the earliest where it was anticipated that the appointment can be concluded in the next two months,” the statement from the revolting EC members read.
Current joint secreatary Kalyan Chaubey will continue to discharge the role of CEO as per the constitution, the EC members said.
Usha, on her part, said that the EC members have gone back on their word as they had agreed to the appointment of the CEO in the January meeting.
“The EC meeting held in January was video-recorded. I asked each one of them whether they agree to the appointment of Iyer as the CEO or not. All of them said Iyer is good and everything about him is all right. Only his salary will have to be negotiated,” she stated.
As per Usha, despite the constant talk about negotiating the salary, the EC members have gone back on their word and are asking for fresh appointment.
The bone of contention is the Rs 20 lakh per month salary for Iyer, along with other perks.
She said the latest development could jeopardise India’s chances of bidding for the 2036 Olympics.
“Only after the appointment (of the CEO) was done, the Future Host Commission agreed to have a dialogue with us, otherwise they would not agree to it. The CEO will have to lead the negotiations, we have to show professionalism, otherwise how would we got to present our bid?” she asked.
The appointment of Iyer took months and a few interventions from IOC and with circling back on the same topic after almost eight months, IOA is going into circles and doing nothing.
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