editorial, Governance Now, May 1-15, 2011
One Kalmadi is in, but there are many more running amok
Minutes after the news about Suresh Kalmadi’s arrest came and
the Bharatiya Janata Party reacted saying that it was a delayed action,
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said: “UPA has let the law take its own course (in corruption cases).” We can’t find words to express how reassured and grateful we feel about this.
For quite a few months, it seemed, the law had been blinded enough to miss its course. While we thank Tewari for sharing the insight, we beg
to make a few humble submissions to her majesty, the UPA government.
Our first submission is same as the opposition’s. It came too late in the day. More than a year before the CWG, the Controller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had forewarned about dubious deals of Kalmadi and his henchmen.
A few months ahead of the games, a near dysfunctional Central Vigilance Commission
(CVC) screamed out that price bids had been tampered with, ineligible agencies given works and inferior workmanship certified as excellent.
A post-games inquiry by retired bureaucrat V K Shunglu said Kalmadi ran the organising committee like a private club, splurging public money for private gains. Had your majesty “let” the law take its course at the right time, thousands of crore of rupees could have been saved. We may send Kalmadi to the Tihar now, but the money is lost.
These inquiries have indicted the Delhi government, various civic agencies like DDA, MCD, PWD, NDMC, CPWD, RITES and union ministries of urban development and sports too. A highpowered committee of senior bureaucrats of the union government is also responsible, for it gave the final nod to all financial deals. Our second submission, therefore, is that the law should be allowed to catch up with those powerful individuals.
Our third submission is an appeal to the sports and law ministries to do some homework first. For months we were told Kalmadi couldn’t be sacked as chairman of the games’ organising committee, it being a society. In January this year, the attorney general said he could be, because Kalmadi became chairman
even before the society was registered, and he was sacked. Now, a notice has been sent to the Indian Olympic Association asking it to sack Kalmadi as its president, with a threat from Ajay Maken, our honourable sports minister, that he “will” write to the attorney general again and “take action” on his own.
Our fourth and last submission is a request to your majesty to revisit laws governing our national sports bodies and make suitable changes
to save sports from many more Kalmadis running amok with public money.
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