New Delhi:  The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Thursday informed the   International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the autonomy of National Sports Federations (NSF) in the country is in grave danger because of the intransigent attitude of the government.

Ministry of Sports, Government of India has taken a rigid stand on the issue of the autonomy of the Sports Federations, IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra wrote in a letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge.

He sought the directions from the IOC to end the present logjam at the earliest so that the Sportspersons of India are able to participate in the International competition under their own national flag.

“We await your early response so that a date is fixed for the meeting at the IOC headquarters” he wrote.

“We appreciate your concern for an early solution to the problem but we are rather constrained to say that the Ministry of Sports, Government of India is bent on destroying the autonomy of the IOA and the National Sports Federations. The same is not acceptable to us.”Prof Malhotra said in the letter.

“While we endorsed your move for a dialogue involving the government, it has gone ahead and constituted a committee to re-draft the controversial sports bill, which is in total breach of the Olympic Charter.”

He further added that ‘the government has not taken us into confidence on any count and has not shown any interest in respecting your directive to find a common ground to end this deadlock.

‘You will recapitulate that it is because of the government guidelines (sports code) that IOC suspended the IOA and now the whole exercise is being repeated by the government in form of a sports bill, trying to give it a colour of a new legislation.

‘I have already sent a letter to the concerned Ministry seeking their views and clarification on their contradictory stand ‘

“In these circumstances, we like the IOC to guide us as to what action we should take before meeting you, as desired.“ he concluded.