IOA Athletes Panel Ratifies SOM Survey Hours After Vote, Raises Questions About Article 3.7

IOA President PT Usha (PTI Photo) NEW DELHI: In a strange development that has raised fresh questions about the Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) election process, its Athletes’ Commission ratified the results of the Athletes of Exceptional Merit (SOM) election within hours of the November 9 election, even though Article 3.7 of the IOA’s constitution stipulates that the eight SOMs will be selected by the commission before they are inducted.Minutes of the virtual meeting available to TOI show that the commission recorded its “confirmation, acceptance and ratification” of the independent election process after the results had already been declared. The meeting was held without any formal communication or circulated agenda, raising questions about the haste with which the exercise was approved.The Minutes themselves confirm that Article 3.7 provides for the selection of eight SOMs by Athletes’ Commissions, followed by ratification by the General Assembly. However, the commission relied on the SOM rules, which provide for independent elections through an 80-member slate. The question is whether these rules can prevail over the constitutional provision, especially when Article 32 provides that in case of conflict, the IOA constitution takes precedence over the rules and regulations.Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra has flagged this very discrepancy in a letter to IOA president PT Usha and CEO Raghuram Iyer seeking to clarify the selection mechanism. The minutes now add another dimension: instead of selecting eight representatives in advance, the commission ratified a process that had already been completed.The controversy is compounded by allegations of omission from the electoral roll. Former Commonwealth Games gold medalist international boxer Manoj Kumar told TOI that his name figured in the SOM draft list released on October 19 but disappeared from the final list on October 23. Alleging a conspiracy to accommodate Dola Banerjee’s brother Rahul, he said his complaints to the Election Officer, the Sports Department and the IOA went unanswered. The same happened with former international volleyball player Sukhpal Singh, whose name was initially included in the SOM list but subsequently dropped.