Batra refutes Mittal’s allegations

NEWDELHI:Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Narinder Batra said on Tuesday he has not flouted rules of IOA or the international hockey federation (FIH) in order to get elected to the top posts of the two bodies.

Batra was elected FIH president on November 12, 2016 and became IOA president the next year.

Batra has written to International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach and executive board in reply to the allegations of IOA vice-president Sudhanshu Mittal.

He said Mittal was trying to damage his image as he intends to run for president of IOA next year. “...I have at no stage flouted any of the Rules and Regulations of the IOA or the FIH in my election as President of IOA which was held on 14 December 2017...,” Batra wrote to Bach.

Mittal, in a letter to IOC top brass on Saturday, had complained referring to article 7.2 of FIH statutes pointing out that Batra was nominated as well as elected as president of FIH while he was also president of Hockey India. “This is not permissible according to the statute of the FIH,” Mittal said.

Batra said: “Article 7.2 is in the FIH statutes with effect from November 3, 2018. The IOA election was on Dec 14, 2017 and as such this was not applicable.”

“For both my election to IOA and FIH in 2016, the statues dated Nov 12, 2016 was applicable.”

Batra said to avoid conflict of interest he resigned from the post of president, Hockey India on November 25, 2016.