Usha says council members trying to sideline her
PRESIDENT of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) PT Usha has said that the revolting executive council members were trying to sideline her by their acts of defiance, including issuing termination letters to an official appointed by her.
On Friday, nine council members had pasted a signed notice at the IOA office premises here, asking ‘unauthorized persons' not to enter its headquarters. The notice, which Usha termed as ‘arbitrary', was directed at two recently appointed officials.
A majority of members had earlier claimed that they had signed a suspension order declaring Raghuram Iyer's appointment as IOA chief executive in January as null and void. The members also claimed that they had ‘terminated' Ajay Narang from the post of executive assistant to IOA president.
Usha acknowledged the receipt of the termination letter served to Narang by the council members but rejected it as ‘absolute nullity'.
‘It is disheartening to see that we are still not able to work as a team and each of your act is an attempt to sideline me,' Usha said in her response sent to the revolting members. ‘I am left with no option but to remind you all that the day-to-day administrative functions including hiring and firing of staff is not the job of the executive council. As the EC, we should be using our powers and right for much more important aspects of taking the IOA to heights,' she said.
The internal feud in the IOA, which came out in public in January, is still continuing even as three months are left for the Paris Olympics to begin.