Dirty politics hurting IOA family, rues IWF Secy General Yadav

Indian Weightlifting Federation Secretary General Sahdev Yadav on Monday wrote a letter to Indian Olympic Association President Narinder Batra, saying that he was shocked to see that the names of Members of Executive Council, Associate Vice Presidents and Associate Joint Secretaries have been removed from the official IOA website.

"Today I am going through the website of Indian Olympic Association and I am shocked to see that the names of members of  Executive Council, Associate Vice Presidents and Associate Joint Secretaries have been removed from the website all of sudden," Sahdev Yadav wrote in his letter.

"This action of removal of senior and seasoned members of the IOA who are part of this important family is discriminating, unfair, with prejudice and partiality. The foul smell of biasness is coming through such uncalled actions. I condemn the person whoever is responsible for this act."

"The IOA family is tottering and collapsing from some dirty minds playing dirty politics," he added.

The IOA is already involved in an internal conflict between President Batra and Vice President Sudhanshu Mittal. Mittal has claimed that there had been "gross violations" in the process which led to Batra being elected IOA President in December 2017. However, these allegations have been denied by the IOA chief.

Mittal said that Batra has been holding the IOA President's post illegally and he would soon be forced to step down from the post.

"I am so happy with the High Court verdict. His (Batra) madness has been stopped. It is a major reflection on Batra's way of functioning where he has been acting illegally," Mittal said.

"I think it's a major victory and will put a major check on the arbitrary way in which he has been functioning. More such petitions will be filed against him in the near future. He has to go," he added.

Batra, on his part, has denied any wrongdoing. He has written to both FIH CEO and IOC President Thomas Bach, refuting the allegations made by Mittal and said that the IOA Vice President was trying to malign his image and wants to be IOA chief in 2021.