New Delhi: The executive council of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has written a letter to the International Olympic Committee accusing president PT Usha’s functioning as “autocratic” and against the “democratic principles” of the national apex sports body’s constitution.
The feud between sprint legend Usha, who took over the reins of IOA as its first woman president in December 2022, and the EC over Raghuram Iyer’s appointment as CEO seems to have reached a critical point. The executive panel rejected Iyer’s appointment in a stormy emergency meeting on Thursday, adopting a resolution to start the hiring process afresh.
Head of IOC’s Institutional Relations and Governance, Jerome Poivey, was a special invitee to the IOA meeting and had joined through video conference. The IOA crisis has worsened in the last few weeks with Usha and EC members accusing each other of violating provisions of its constitution.
“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 EC, which includes senior vice-president Ajay Patel, vice-presidents Rajlaxmi Singh Deo and Gagan Narang, and treasurer Sahdev Yadav, wrote to Poivey on Friday. A copy of the letter is with HT.
The EC has 15 members, including Usha. While 12 are signatories, athletics commission members Mary Kom and Sharath Kamal didn’t attend the meeting.
“Unfortunately, this pattern of behaviour has been prevalent in previous meetings, resulting in a lack of progress and stonewalling good governance practices. Her approach of ‘my way or the highway’ contradicts the democratic principles envisioned in the IOA constitution,” they wrote.
“We are appreciative that you ultimately stepped in and clarified to the President and the entire Council that the organization must be governed democratically, with the participation, inclusivity and consensus of the entire Executive Council with majority.”
After the stormy meeting, EC members had circulated separate minutes, marking a copy to Jerome, in which joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey was made the acting CEO. By then Usha, who had chaired the meeting, had left. The meeting went on for almost three hours at the IOA headquarters.
Usha too had written to Poivey saying that she had ended the meeting in his presence and therefore the “purported Minutes of Meeting jointly signed by the 10 EC members is null and void”.
CEO issue internal matter: EC members
Poivey had met Usha and the EC members during his visit earlier in September for the Olympic Council of Asia meeting in Delhi in a bid to resolve their differences. When he tried to mediate on the issue of ratifying the CEO appointment during Thursday’s meeting, he was told IOC does not have the mandate to interfere in the internal matters of an NOC.
In the letter to Poivey, the EC members said: “While this is an absolute internal matter of the IOA the undersigned members shall continue to pursue meaningful dialogues with our leader and hopefully we shall be able to bring a better traction to our endeavour of delivering the best for the Olympic movement.”
EC resolved to prioritise the appointment of a CEO and re-advertise for the position, to make the appoint within two months.
