Mumbai to host IOC session in 2023
Mumbai(PTI): The International Olympic Committee on Saturday awarded India the right to host the IOC Session in Mumbai next year.
Nita Ambani, the Indian representative on the committee, described it as "a significant development for the country's Olympic aspiration".
India will host the session for the first time since 1983. The session will be hosted at the state-of-the-art, brand new Jio World Convention Centre.
Mumbai received a historic 99% of the votes in favour of its bid from the delegates participating in the process, with 75 members endorsing its candidature in the session held at Beijing.
An IOC session is the annual meeting of the members of the IOC, comprising 101 voting members and 45 honorary members.
It discusses and decides on the key activities of the global Olympics movement including adoption or amendment of the Olympic Charter, election of IOC members and office bearers and election of the host city of Olympics.
"The Olympic Movement is back to India after a 40-year wait. I am truly grateful to the International Olympic Committee for entrusting India with the honour of hosting the IOC Session in Mumbai in 2023," said Ambani, the first woman to be elected as an IOC member from India.
"This will be a significant development for India's Olympic aspiration and will herald the start of a new era for Indian sport."
Apart from Ambani, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, and India's first individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra were part of the Indian delegation.
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'Rear-guard action': BJP over Mamata accepting sports minister's resignation after Messi event
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Tuesday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's accepting Aroop Biswas' resignation as the state sports minister is nothing but a "rear-guard action" to douse public anger over the mismanagement of football icon Lionel Messi's event last week.
BJP co-in-charge for West Bengal Amit Malviya alleged that this is also an "open confession" that the Messi event fiasco was not accidental but a government-manufactured disaster, borne out of the poor governance of Banerjee, her ministers and the state bureaucracy.
Banerjee on Tuesday accepted Biswas' resignation as the sports minister in the wake of the controversy over the mismanagement of football icon Messi's event last week, a senior leader of the ruling TMC said.
Biswas, who had written to the chief minister seeking to be relieved of his responsibilities as sports minister, will continue as a cabinet minister, retaining charge of the power department.
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Reacting to the development, Malviya said in a post on X, "TMC Sports Minister Aroop Biswas resigns after the Messi fiasco and Mamata Banerjee accepts it in record time."
"Do not mistake this for accountability; this is nothing but a rear-guard action to douse public anger. anger! This is not 'Raj Dharma'," he added.
The BJP leader alleged that the incident was the outcome of "loot" of common people which is "so synonymous" with the TMC.
The incident was also the outcome of the "shameless VIP culture that TMC thrives on and deep-rooted cronyism promoted by Banerjee," he charged.
Malviya further alleged that Biswas' resignation exposes a "collective failure of Mamata Banerjee, her partisan bureaucracy, and her crony cabinet".
"This is a symbolic sacrifice, a political hoax, soon to be buried under layers of bureaucracy, with no justice, no accountability, and no remorse," the BJP leader said, adding, "No resignation will bring back the time lost, the money wasted, or the stolen chance for football lovers to witness Messi in Kolkata."
