IOA treasurer Yadav dubs Usha’s statement on felicitation as “lies”

New Delhi: The Indian Olympic Association has been a divided house with president PT Usha and most of the executive council members involved in a ugly showdown. The turmoil has also reached the International Olympic Committee, which has asked India’s apex sports body to urgently address its internal governance issues. However, the infighting is only getting worse with each passing day with Usha and the EC members levelling allegations against each other.
After Usha on Monday claimed that no felicitation function could be organised for the Paris Olympics medallists because of “non-co-operation of the executive council members”, IOA treasurer Sahdev Yadav slammed her, calling her statement a “blatant lie”.
Usha had also accused the IOA finance committee of blocking funds that were meant to support the athletes’ preparation for the Paris Olympics.
“We fail to understand why the IOA president is spreading lies across the whole country, to put down the EC members, which does not have any proof nor hold any genuine ground,” Yadav, president of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF), said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Her repeated efforts and proposals are nothing but blatant lies which have been cooked by the President every now and then and (she is also) shedding crocodile tears in front of the media,” said Yadav.
He said Usha had not had any discussion with EC members, nor was any official proposal in writing made for organising a felicitation ceremony for the Paris Olympics medallists. India won six medals in the Olympics, which ended on August 11.
“Any proposal recommended and approved by the EC members and finance committee has been paid without any delay,” he added.
The war-of-words between Usha and EC members have continued unabated since the EC refused to ratify Raghu Iyer’s choice as CEO last week. The emergency executive committee meeting last Thursday had only one agenda – ratification of the CEO’s appointment. Jerome Poivey, IOC’s head of Institutional Relations and Governance, had joined the meeting through video conference as a special invitee.
The EC members had circulated a separate minutes of the meeting in which they handed the duty of CEO to joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey, president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
“As discussed, and agreed upon in the meeting with your presence, the Executive Council in majority has rejected the nomination of Mr Iyer to be considered to the post of the CEO of the IOA. Where the Executive Council also puts on record a strong rebuttal of the claim of the President in terms of the appointment of Mr Iyer who in the first place was never appointed as the CEO of IOA,” twelve of the EC members said in a letter to Poivey on Friday, a copy of which is with HT.
The signatories included senior vice-president Ajay Patel, vice-presidents Rajlaxmi Singh Deo and Gagan Narang, and Yadav. The EC has 15 members, including Usha. Athletes commission members Mary Kom and Sharath Kamal didn’t attend the meeting on Thursday.
Usha, who left the EC meeting early, then wrote to Poivey that the minutes sent by the members after her leaving were null and void. She also said the executive council has been resisting the CEO’s appointment since the start of their tenure in December 2022.
On the alleged ‘exorbitant’ salary paid to Iyer, which has been a major sticking point, Usha had said “his appointment was officially ratified in the January 2024 meeting. The said meeting has not only been videographed but also transcribed and minuted, all of which evidence the fact that a majority of the EC members accepted the appointment of Mr. Iyer as requested, and nominated me, as part of the EC, to only renegotiate the salary component.”