Can the turmoil over Indian Olympic body’s election affect it’s 2036 bid?

The bad publicity over upcoming Indian Olympic Association (IOA) elections, with it’s current president PT Usha in the eye of the storm, could not have been worse timed for the country’s Olympics bid aspirations. It hasn’t escaped the eyes of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has sent a strongly worded letter to the Indian Olympic body to set their house in order ahead of the country’s presentation for 2036 Olympics bid on 26^th November.   

An Indian delegation is set to make a presentation to the IOC’s Future Host Commission as part of the country’s bid to host the 2036 Games, with the likes of Nita Ambani (India’s representative in IOA) and Usha, along with officials from the Union and Gujarat governments. They are supposed to showcase India’s case with Ahmedabad proposed as the host city.

However, the status of former sprint queen Usha - in the wake of her not being able to secure a nomination among the top four women’s Sportspersons of Outstanding Merit (SOM) ahead of the elections makes her presence in the delegation somewhat untenable. What’s more, Usha’s surprise nomination from the Ice Hockey Federation of India to contest the IOA elections has now been challenged by advocate Atul Kumar - who has filed a formal objection with returning officer Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, challenging her inclusion in the electoral roll.

The decision of the legendary athlete to remain in part of the fray for a tilt at the second term raised enough eyebrows, but many feel it’s more a ‘posturing’ rather than anything else. She had shot a letter to the IOC top brass earlier this complaining of foul play in the online voting for SOM polls, while she minced no words in an interview with The Tribune where she asked for a scrutiny of the votes polled for long jump ace Anju Bobby George – a fellow Malayali.

Usha had finished fifth in the women’s category with 40 votes behind Anju (53), Rani Rampal (50), Dola Banerjee (45) and Saina Nehwal (43). While such a result is entirely possible, what raised fears of external influence was that the SOM elections were preceded by the withdrawal of 13 candidates – eight men and five women – from the contest for eight places in the General Assembly. Several athletes subsequently alleged that their withdrawals were not voluntary.

Ashwini Nachappa, a former sprinter and contemporary of Usha, claimed in an interview that she had been asked to pull out under external pressure. Former world No. 1 double-trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi also said repeated requests from people associated with different sports had led him to withdraw.

This invariably led to questions over transparency in the IOA elections, with none less than Abhinav Bindra – one of India’s only two individual gold medallists in Olympics - speaking out. The red-flagging from IOC is hence of particular concern while a IOC spokesperson told the Indian Express: “The IOC is very disappointed to note that once again, issues and disputes seem to have resurfaced in the conduct of the IOA election process and in the implementation of the rules governing the IOA elections, despite all the efforts made over the past few years to establish a strong governance framework for the IOA in accordance with the Olympic Charter and the basic principles of Good Governance within the Olympic Movement.

“This extremely regrettable situation is, once again, negatively affecting the operations and reputation of the Olympic movement in India. The IOC has urged the IOA and the Electoral Officer directly responsible for the IOA election process to ensure that the IOA elections can be conducted in full compliance with the Olympic Charter, the IOA Constitution, and all applicable rules, in a free and fair manner and without any external interference,” the spokesperson said.