Indian Olympic Association is heading towards elections. Most, if not all, members and officials of IOA are not sportspersons. Government of India should issue an order that members and officials of IOA should be former Olympians and President, Secretary General and Treasurer of IOA should have won an Olympic medal either as an individual or as a member of a team.
IOA has 32-member Executive Council. It has President, Secretary General, Treasurer, two Senior Vice Presidents, nine Vice Presidents, six Joint Secretaries, ten Executive Council Members, One Athletes Commission Representative and one International Olympic Committee member. Besides these, there are seven Associate Vice Presidents, eight Associate Joint Secretaries, and ten Associate Executive Members. At present President is also an IOC member. So, there are two IOC members. Associate Vice Presidents, Associate Joint Secretaries, and Associate Executive Members are nominated by President subject to ratification of Executive Council. They and IOC members should be former Olympians. It is not good enough that they are known sports enthusiasts and are associated with promotion of sports.
Some officials of IOA are politicians or businesspersons or both. IOA’s member associations are also mostly headed by politicians. National Sports Federations have three votes each. State Olympic Associations have two votes each. Union Territories Olympic Associations have one vote each. IOA Athletes Commission has two votes. It should be one vote each for all. Members and officials of these Federations and Associations should be former Olympians or if their sport is not in Olympics or India did not quality for Olympics, they should have represented India in international competitions.
All members and officials of IOA, Federations and Associations should be less than seventy years old.
In cricket some associations have become family fiefdoms passing from father to son or daughter. Such things should end in cricket and should not happen in IOA.
There should be no Life Presidents.