Clean Sports India alleged that the Indian Olympic Association's decision to amend its constitution to bar charge-framed persons from contesting its elections "was a complete eyewash," according to the PTI. CSI President and Olympian Ashwini Nachappa said that the amended constituion "gives tainted officials an opportunity to return to their posts after securing clean chits from the body's ethics commission." Nachappa said, "IOA is trying make IOC believe that they have followed the ultimatum of the IOC and the two tainted office bearers will be removed as a direct impact. However, by referring the case to the IOA's very own ethics commission that can give a clean chit to tainted members using the representation of peoples' act, it seems that this clause is ineffective." Nachappa said that the tainted officials "must be cleared of all charges by the courts and not their ethics commission" (PTI, 12/10). REUTERS Karolos Grohmann reported IOC President Thomas Bach said on Tuesday that a last-minute decision by the banned IOA to comply with IOC orders "is a good first step for the country's gradual return to the Olympic fold." Bach: "These (IOC) recommendations of good governance have been accepted. This is a major step in the right direction." Bach said that in order for the ban to be lifted, free and transparent elections "will need to be staged but until that happens Indian athletes qualified for the 2014 Sochi Olympics will not be affected" (REUTERS, 12/10).
