International Olympic Committee(IOC)Suspends Indian Olympic Association(IOA)

IOC President Jacques Rogge wrote to IOA's acting president Prof. VK Malhotra and

informed that the IOC Executive Board has decided that the IOA "is no longer entitled to exercise any activity or right conferred upon it by the Olympic Charter or the IOC."

IOC President Jacques Rogge gave reasons for the decisions -

The first reason is: "The IOA is faced with outside interference in applying its election rules, which threatens the IOA's autonomy and the holding of free and fair elections in conformity with the IOA statutes and the Olympic Charter."

The second one is: "the IOA has been unable to observe its own statutes and the Olympic Charter and to enforce the basic principles of ethics and good governance".
IOC President Jacques Rogge also said that the Indian Olympic Association is not entitled to hold any elections without express prior approval of the IOC
As a result of all these reasons, the IOA was suspended by the governing body with immediate effect until it is in a position to satisfy all the conditions set out in the Olympic Charter and the IOC's requirements.

The suspension came just a day before the IOA elections, which top IOA officials said would go ahead as per schedule . IOA is holding the elections on the directive of the Delhi high court which has asked the sports body to conduct the polls as per its own constitution as well as the Sports Code.
IOA has decided to go ahead with the elections under the supervision of a 3-member election panel consisting of Justice VK Bali, Anil Dev Singh and JD Kapoor
"We are going ahead with the elections. We are yet to receive any official communication from the IOC. Let us get that first, which we will place before IOA's AGM tomorrow," IOA acting president Vijay Malhotra told

Abhay Singh Chautala elected president, Lalit Bhanot secretary general of IOA

Abhay Singh Chautala on Wednesday Dec 5,2012 took over as the president of the Indian Olympic Association while the tainted Lalit Bhanot became the secretary general after the IOA conducted its controversial elections defying the IOC's directive not to go ahead with the polls. Chautala and Bhanot were declared elected unopposed in the polls conducted by an Election Commission made up of retired High Court Justices.

Elected  Senior Vice-President and Treasurer

Virendra Nanavati and N Ramachandran were respectively elected unopposed to the posts of senior vice-president and treasurer.

 8 Vice-Presidents Elected 

Akhilesh Das Gupta, B P Baishya, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Anurag Thakur, R K Anand, Tarlochan Singh, Narinder Batra and G S Mander were elected as vice-presidents in the elections in which 154 members cast their votes

 6 Joint Secretaries Elected

Anandeswar Pandey, Raja K Sidhu, Rakesh Gupta, Kuldeep Vats, Rajeev Mehta and S H Hashmi were elected as Joint Secretaries

20 Executive Council Members Elected 

The newly elected Executive Council members are - I D Nanavati, B S Langde, Brij Bhushan Saran, Dhanraj Choudhary, Mohd Mustaque Ahmad, Adhip Das, Rajesh Bhandari, Suresh Sharma, Balbir Singh Khuswaha, Bhupinder Singh Bajwa, Ashok Sahota, Col N Kumar, P K Pradhan, Vagish Pathak, R K Gupta, Namdev Shirgaonkar, Sahdev Yadav, V A Shiyad, Rana Gurmeet Sodhi and V S Sisodia.  

 Note

The elections were held for the 8 posts of vice-presidents, 6 joint secretaries and 20 Executive Council Members. There were 7 candidates in the fray for vice-presidents' posts, 15 for joint secretaries and 28 for Executive Council Members. 

The IOA's suspension by IOC have far-reaching consequences -
IOA will no longer get funds from IOCand the officials will not be invited by the IOC to attend its events like the Olympics and Paralympics.
Indian athletes will not be allowed to compete under the tricolour but could be permitted to compete under the IOC flag

The Olympic Council of Asia and the Commonwealth Games Federation are also expected to follow suit, which will result in similar sanctions as far as the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games are concerned.

Reasons for the Suspension
The IOC had been threatening —in a series of letters in the past few days to slap sanctions on India for following the government's Sports Code in the IOA elections, which the international body insists is against the Olympic charter.(IOC gave the first warning of suspension on November 23,2012)
The adherence to the Sports Code has been interpreted as "government interference in the Olympic movement" by the IOC.
IOC took the decision after it snubbed IOA's bid to send a two-member delegation to explain its position.