By IANS
New Delhi : Union Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said that Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi has repeatedly ignored his invitation to discuss the draft of the proposed National Sports Policy, delaying its submission to the cabinet.
“We have on three separate occasions suggested dates to the IOA officials and they have repeatedly at the last moment said that it was inconvenient for them. Then I decided to go ahead after their abusive comments about me personally and my officers in the media,” said Aiyar, on the sidelines of the prize ceremony of the NIIT Mind Champions Academy here Friday.
Aiyar also said the ministry has revised the draft after taking into consideration the inputs from various people connected with sports in the country.
“A very important member of the IOA, K.P. Singhdeo (president of the rowing federation) wrote me a letter in detail and a lot of his inputs have been incorporated in the new sports policy.
“We also had discussions with eminent sportspersons, including the Arjuna Awardees, and took their views too. It also required us to study a lot of international sports regulations and legal procedures,” the minister said.
He also clarified that the policy is late by four months due to the IOA’s dilly-dallying, but since the apex body of sports has repeatedly failed to discuss the matter with the ministry, the draft will be submitted to the cabinet in January.
“As we are ready to put up the draft before the cabinet, I got a letter from Mr. Kalmadi saying that he hasn’t been consulted. So I wrote back to him, spoke to him personally and also asked the IOA to fix a date with me. Our office has been in touch with the IOA, but till yesterday they haven’t got back to us,” said Aiyar.
“But I do hope that since Mr. Kalmadi has written to me I think we will have a solution. But I cannot delay this indefinitely. If only the IOA had cooperated we could have had the policy by September,” he added.
The minister also resented the IOA president remarks about his ministry.
“The president of the IOA said what do the jokers sitting in Shashtri Bhavan (minister’s office) know about sports policy. My officers are not jokers, beyond Shastri Bhavan there is the Nehru Stadium………… “