With a bold offer to host the Olympic Games at stake, the Indian government could not block Pakistan from versatile sports events despite the predominant public anger against archrivals, as this could result in the contract after hosting future big events.
The government on Thursday gave Approval for the participation of the Pakistani Hockey Cup in Asia (August) and the Junior World Cup (November-December), the Junior Sagittarius Championship (September) and the World Championship in Para-Atletics (October).
The reason is that any step towards blocking Pakistan, after the terrorist attack of Pahalgam, which killed 26 tourists, would be a violation of the Olympic Charter, which is like the Constitution for the Olympic Movement.
Specifically, the Charter 44 rule prohibits the National Olympic Committees to exclude athletes on the basis of “racial, religious or political reasons”.
Failure to comply with visa can lead to “international isolation and loss of host rights for future events”.
India brought the onslaught of this six years ago when Pakistani shooters were denied visas to compete in the World Cup ISSF, which was also an Olympic qualifying event.
The angry IOC did not stop the discussion with India on hosting the rights of all future events, and also abolished the Olympic qualifying status of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Competition, in which Pakistani shooters were to compete.
Indian events were powered by outrage against a terrorist attack in Pulwama, in which the terrorist group was based on Pakistan 40 CRPF workers.
Interviews about future events continued only after India provided specific written warranties that such discrimination would not happen in the future.
IOC recommended the International Federation for “neither the prize nor organizing sports events in India until the guarantees are obtained”.
A year before, India refused visas to boxers from Kosovo at the Women’s Boxing Championship.
Given that the country is aggressively promoting its plans for the 2036 Olympics in Ahmedabad, any step towards stopping Pakistani athletes in multilateral events would seriously damage its prospects.
“This is not a simple situation. If you want to introduce yourself as a nation capable of organizing global events, you cannot prevent athletes from coming from any country. But bilaters are different and we can always avoid Pakistan in any such engagement,” the ministry source said.
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Published:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
4th July 2025
Tune
