New Delhi, July 3 An Associate Executive Council member of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has requested its President Narinder Batra to let the National Olympic Council's Legal Committee Chairman RK Anand take over its legal cases. The request comes on the heels of the Delhi High Court not allowing the Sports Ministry to grant provisional recognitions to 57 National Sports Federations (NSF).
"Request please ask R.K. Anand Chair of IOA Legal Committee to take control of IOA Legal Cases," said Bholanath Singh in his letter to Batra.
"I understand that the Hon'ble Court today did not allow recognition of 57 NSF and the next date is in August 2020. Athletics, Hockey, Weightlifting which are training for 2020 Olympics will now stop. Stopping training is very bad for athletes."
Singh alleges that IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta and vice-president Sudhanshu Mittal are sabotaging the legal efforts for their own vested interests. "Rajeev Mehta Secretary General who handles legal cases of IOA does not know anything about law and that is why IOA mostly loses cases or compromises in cases and sometimes also plays fixed matches," said Singh.
"No athlete from Fencing has qualified for Tokyo 2020 and Kho Kho is not an Olympic Sport. Both Rajeev Mehta and Sudhanshu Mittal will try their best to see that training of athletes does not start because it suits them and India wins less medals. They are not in IOA to promote sports but to ruin sports in India."
The Sports Ministry on June 25 revoked the provisional recognition that it had given to 54 National Sports Federations earlier in the month under the direction of the Delhi High Court.
The court said that the ministry by granting recognition has not complied with an order that was issued on February 7 this year which required the ministry and the IOA to "inform the court in advance" while taking "any decision in relation to the NSFs."
( With inputs from IANS )