Defying the ban imposed by the International OlympicCommittee, the IOA today went ahead with its Annual General Meeting andelections, insisting that it had not done anything wrong.
"The house unanimously decided that we did not doanything wrong by going ahead with the election process. We had alreadycommunicated to the IOC that the IOA will have to go ahead with the electionsunder the sports code because of the Delhi High Court order," IOA actingPresident V K Malhotra told reporters on the sidelines of the AGM here.
"Inspite of this the IOC decided to suspend us, but wewill try our level best to get the suspension revoked as soon aspossible," he said after the meeting which lasted just over an hour.
"About 85 per cent of the sports federations and stateOlympic committees were present in the AGM. And it was a unanimousdecision," he said.
Malhotra said the IOA has sought Prime Minister ManmohanSingh's intervention in the matter.
"I had already written to the PM to intervene into thematter. We are hoping to sort the issue by sitting together with therepresentatives of IOC, IOA and the government. We have to find a common groundbetween the Olympic charter, sports code and the Delhi HC order," he said.
In a major embarrassment for India, the IOC yesterdaysuspended the IOA because of government interference in its election process.
The IOC said that it decided to ban India as the IOA hadfailed to comply with Olympic Charter and also allowed a tainted official tocontest elections for a top post.
The decision was largely expected after the IOA decided togo ahead with the elections today under the government's Sports Code, defyingthe IOC's diktat to hold the polls under the Olympic Charter.
