By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday termed as “misleading” Sports Minister Ajay Maken’s claim that the National Democratic Alliance government had picked Suresh Kalmadi as chief of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee.
“Suresh Kalmadi was not appointed by us, the statement by Ajay Maken is misleading,” BJP leader VIjay Goel said Wednesday.
Maken, in a statement in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, held the NDA government responsible for Kalmadi’s appointment to head the CWG OC.
He said the words “government appointee” in the bid document were deleted and the host city contract had clear condition that the Commonwealth Games Organisation, which in India’s case was the Indian Olympic Association, will be responsible for organising the Games.
In a counter, Goel said even if the NDA was responsible for appointment of Kalmadi, why did the Congress-led government ignore the warnings by three of its sports minister against Kalmadi.
“Even if we had appointed him, when he was looting the country why did the UPA government not remove him,” Goel asked.
A CAG report had reportedly accused the prime minister of ignoring warning letters of two ministers about the appointment of Kalmadi. This has also been shown in the findings of an RTI application, which says former sports ministers Sunil Dutt, Mani Shankar Aiyar and M.S. Gill on different occasions wrote to the prime minister against Kalmadi.
“His (Kalmadi’s) budget was only three thousand crore, where was the rest of money spent?” GOel asked.