Indian Olympic Association to clarify stand on Kalmadi

New Delhi: The Indian Olympic Association said Monday it will write to the International Olympic Committee later this week explaining its position regarding Suresh Kalmadi, the disgraced head of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The IOA faces possible sanctions for not respecting the IOC’s ethics code in regard to Kalmadi, who continues as IOA president despite spending nine months in jail for graft charges. “We’ve intimated to the IOC that we are discussing the issue at an emergency meeting on Friday (March 2),” IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra told reporters. “We will explain the situation to them after the executive council discusses the issue.” Kalmadi faces corruption charges related to the Commonwealth Games, which were marred by construction delays and a budget which ballooned to $15 billion from an initial estimate of $412 million. [caption id=“attachment_226855” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The IOA faces possible sanctions for not respecting the IOC’s ethics code in regard to Kalmadi, who continues as IOA president despite spending nine months in jail for graft charges. AFP”]  [/caption] Malhotra has been running the IOA since Kalmadi was jailed last year. “Mr. Kalmadi has written to us saying he will not be involved in the running of the association for a long time,” Malhotra said. “He has not resigned from his post but has forsaken his rights. We’ve forwarded to IOC the letter sent to us by Kalmadi that he would not exercise his rights as president.” Malhotra also said the IOA would not boycott this year’s Olympic Games in London over a simmering controversy over a sponsor’s links to a gas leak disaster in the central Indian city of Bhopal in 1984. “There is no question of an Olympic Boycott but we may decide to take part under protest,” Malhotra said. There have been calls from India for the IOC to drop Dow Chemicals, which is sponsoring an $11-million decorative wrap that will be installed around London’s Olympic Stadium. Dow bought Union Carbide in 2000. Union Carbide’s Bhopal plant is blamed for the deadly gas leak that killed an estimated 15,000 people and injured half a million. Critics argue that the purchase makes the US-based company responsible for lingering groundwater contamination and other issues. AP