Suresh Kalmadi. Credit: Reuters
New Delhi: Facing a severe backlash for appointing scam-tainted Suresh Kalmadi and Abhay Singh Chautala as life presidents, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has been forced to revoke its controversial decision.
A top IOA official confirmed that the appointments of Kalmadi and Chautala has been declared “null and void” in order to get the recognition of the sports ministry and also to avoid any possible action from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Kalmadi and Chautala were elevated to the honorary position at the IOA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Chennai on December 27, but the Olympic body was forced to reverse its decision after it was opposed by a majority of IOA members.
INLD leader Abhay Chautala. Credit: PTI
“Both Kamaldi and Chautala’s appointments have been declared null and void as after going through all the documents of the AGM we found out that there were technical fault in the decision,” a top IOA official told PTI.
“Kamaldi and Chautala are no longer part of IOA and have nothing to do with IOA.”
The current move can be termed as a complete U-turn from the IOA which has been suspended by the sports ministry for making the controversial appointments.
The ministry said IOA’s suspension will continue until it decides to reverse its decision of appointing Kalmadi and Chautala as its life presidents.
In fact, newly-appointed International Hockey Federation president Narinder Batra also resigned as the Olympic body’s associate vice-president in protest.
While Kalmadi is an accused in the 2010 Commonwealth Games corruption scam and has also spent nine months in jail, Chautala is facing a trial in a disproportionate assets case.
Interestingly, Kalmadi has not accepted the honorary post until he gets a clean chit from the court, Chautala was defiant and decided to stick to his position until he was asked by the IOC to do so.