Suresh Kalmadi, the chief of Commonwealth Games organising committee has said that he did not do anything wrong and was ready to answer all the queries posed by the investigating agencies.
He also stated his willingness to submit a statement in parliament regarding the investigations being conducted in context of corruption charges in organising the big sporting event.
In an attempt to clear his position and while welcoming the probe into the wrongdoings, the boss of the CWG organizing committee asked for a chance to clear his position.
“I met the speaker and told her that I will give my statement in the Lok Sabha and she said I can do so when the parliament starts functioning.” Kalmadi told the media personnel after coming back from China. He was on a visit to the neighbouring country
for attending the Asian Games ending ceremony.
While denying discussing the matter further, he stated, “All matters are subjudice but I would say that I have not done anything wrong even in a single thing….. I welcome the investigations and will answer their queries.” The organising committee
has been in hot waters these days amid consuming an exorbitant and unrealistic budget in organising the event. According to the local media reports, there were huge attempts of corruption in buying and leasing almost anything for the event. The organisers
took treadmills for the athletes for $20,000 each, and that was just the tip of the burg.
Perhaps that was the reason that Indian government had to give in to public’s demands about probe into the matter which culminated into CBI arresting three of the close associates of Kalmadi back in October.
In that very context of the issue, the days during which Kalmadi had been in Guangzhou, a news channel aired the rumours that he was off the screen in an attempt to avoid the possible probes. Pondering upon the incident the organising committee chief said,
“Some channels are saying that I am missing. I had gone to Guangzhou.”
Pointing out his fingers towards the other possible shareholders of the missing money, Kalmadi said that he was responsible only for holding the Games, along with its opening and ending ceremonies which had been given a budget of 1500 to 1700 crores, out
of which, he said, 1400 crores had been spend till then.
He claimed that the organising committee did not have any role in the construction work which was completely taken care of by the agencies. Hinting upon widening the circle of investigation he said that those who had been handed over with the responsibility
of accomplishing the construction work should reply their part of issues.
The interesting point about Kalmadi’s conversation with the journalists was that despite of huge allegations of potentially sound and pretty much proven corruption charges, he still had the nerve to claim that after the
successful conduct of Commonwealth Games India had emerged as a sporting power in the world.
However, quite contrary to what he said, the manner in which the event was organised, it had arisen investors’ eye brows around the globe, particularly of those who had been considering the decisions of putting money into Indian market and were stunned by
the depiction of poor management skills and high cost of conduct at such higher level.
In his concluding sentences, Kalmadi said that the Prime Minister was equally credited for such impressive steak of athletes, which only became possible as the PM did not hesitate in fulfilling their monetary needs.
Journalists who had been unmasking the backdoor deals and stories of corruption in context of Delhi Commonwealth Games did not seem believing the Organizing Committee chief. Rather Kalmadi’s conversation with them culminated in furthering their skepticism.
The Indian government has been time and again promising a fair probe into the matter, however, with higher probability of engagement of the high officials and politicians into the money making matter, any fruitful results are less likely to prevail.
Tags: