ਭਾਰਤ ਦੀ ਇੰਟਰਨੈਸ਼ਨਲ ਓਲੰਪਿਕਸ ਕਮੇਟੀ ਦੀ
ਮੈਂਬਰਸ਼ਿਪ ਦਸੰਬਰ 2012 ਤੋਂ ਫ੍ਰੀਜ਼ ਕੀਤੀ ਗਈ ਸੀ, ਕਿਉਂਕਿ ਇੰਟਰਨੈਸ਼ਨਲ ਓਲੰਪਿਕ ਕਮੇਟੀ ਨੇ ਭਾਰਤੀ
ਓਲੰਪਿਕ ਕਮੇਟੀ ਦੇ ਅਹੁਦੇਦਾਰਾਂ ਦੀ ਚੋਣ 'ਚ ਭ੍ਰਿਸਟਾਚਾਰ ਹੋਣ 'ਤੇ ਸਖ਼ਤ ਰਵੱਈਆ ਅਪਣਾਇਆ
ਸੀ। ਇਸ ਕਰਕੇ "ਸੋਚੀ ਓਲੰਪਿਕਸ" ਵਿੱਚ ਭਾਰਤ ਨੂੰ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਝੰਡੇ ਨੂੰ ਲਹਿਰਾਉਣ 'ਤੇ ਰੋਕ
ਲਗਾ ਦਿੱਤੀ ਗਈ ਹੈ। ਭਾਰਤੀ ਓਲੰਪਿਕ ਕਮੇਟੀ ਦੀਆਂ ਚੋਣਾ ਸੋਚੀ ਓਲੰਪਿਕਸ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ
ਹੋਣੀਆਂ ਹਨ। ਇਸ ਲਈ ਭਾਰਤੀ ਖਿਡਾਰੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਆਜ਼ਾਦ ਉਮੀਦਵਾਰ ਵਾਂਗੂੰ ਆਪਣੇ ਤੌਰ
'ਤੇ ਬਿਨਾ
ਭਾਰਤੀ ਝੰਡੇ ਤੋਂ ਖੇਡਣਾ ਪਵੇਗਾ।
Athletes from India
will not carry their nation's flag at the Sochi Olympics
The Olympics are never free from political
influence and associations, but in India, political infighting has
literally cost the nation's athletes the chance to compete under their
own flag.
India's membership in the International Olympic Committee has been
frozen since December 2012, when the IOC learned that India elected
officials accused of corruption to its national Olympic committee. The
Indian Olympic Association will hold new elections, but those elections
will not be held until after the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in
Sochi.
As
a result, India's athletes must compete as independents, and will enter
the Opening Ceremony under a generic Olympic flag, not the nation's flag
as shown above in 2012.
Naturally, and justifiably, Indian athletes are outraged. "It is a sad
and embarrassing situation that Indian sport has been put in," Shiva
Keshavan, a luger who will compete in his fifth Olympics, told a local
newspaper. "People around the world know about the failure of our
systems and about corruption and bad governance in sports. The essence
of the Olympic Games is to 'represent' and I feel it is shameful and
pathetic for all of us Indians that athletes may not walk under the
Indian flag."
India had been warned in December that its athletes faced the
possibility of being classified as independent if the nation did not
hold elections before February 7, the date of the Opening Ceremony. The
IOA decided at a December meeting to hold the elections two days later,
on February 9.
Why not simply change the date and move it a few days earlier? That's
thinking about solving the problem, not preserving the process. "The
decision to have elections on February 9 was taken at a special general
body meeting last month," an IOA source told the AFP. "We would have had
to call another general body meeting to change the dates."
"We have had discussions and it was mutually agreed that we must not
take decisions in haste," a source told India Today. "So it was decided
not to alter the dates for the elections. [Changing the election date]
may allow people to exploit legal loopholes in the decision and
jeopardize the polls again."
So rather than alter its bureaucratic procedures, India's Olympic
committee has opted to embarrass its athletes, its nation and itself in
front of the entire world. Olympic spirit apparently means very
different things to different people.
Source:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/athletes-from-india-will-not-carry-their-nation-s-flag-161133091.html