Refusing to be made the “scapegoat” for corruption and shortcomings alleged in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games (CWG), Suresh Kalmadi, Organising Committee (OC) chairperson, blasted Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Sunday for targeting him and said “keeping quiet should not be interpreted as a sign of weakness, nor should patience be seen as a sign of guilt.”
“It was more important to focus on the task of conducting the Games well. National pride was at stake and I did not want that to be affected. Our challenge was to keep the morale of our workforce of over 4,000 high. We succeeded in doing that, ensuring the smooth delivery of the largest-ever Commonwealth Games,” Mr. Kalmadi said in a statement to the media here.
Hitting out at Ms. Dikshit, who on Saturday said that “suspicion of corruption” was on the OC headed by Mr. Kalmadi, he said her “aspersions on corruption in the Organising Committee were most disappointing and uncalled for… It is not right to deflect and point fingers at others when she must indulge in self-reflection on corruption in her own departments. She has said that the ways of the Organising Committee are mysterious, whereas the CWG chief, Mr. Michael Fennel, declared the conduct of the Games exceptional and successful,” Mr. Kalmadi said in his statement.
Supporting the setting up of a probe panel, Mr. Kalmadi said he was sure that the terms of reference of the Shunglu Committee would include not just the scope of work undertaken by the OC at a budget of Rs. 1,620 crore but also the Rs. 16,000 crore spent by the Delhi government. The panel has been set up by the Prime Minister.
Mr. Kalmadi — who was kept away from the two functions where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi met Indian medal winners in the past two days — met Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy here on Sunday, ahead of the crucial post-Games meeting of the Group of Ministers on Monday. While the details of the meeting were not made public, the GoM is expected to focus on the money spent by the OC.
OC watch words
“Transparency and accountability” remained the watch words on the OC, Mr. Kalmadi said the committee was confident that the guilty would not be spared irrespective of which agency they belonged to, even as he went on to point out that all decisions were made by the Executive Board, which included two representatives each of the Central and Delhi governments.
“And the Prime Minister's Office deputed a number of officers, including the Chief Exceutive Officer, Jarnail Singh, to work with the committee,” he noted.
He said a massive amount of work was done in planning and preparing for the Games by innumerable people under the guidance of the Indian Olympic Association and the National Sports Federations. “The Games have succeeded because of the efforts of Team India, including a large number of people and agencies and not any individual.” Ms. Dikshit's attempt to take credit for getting the Games Village ready in time does not fit into the team concept, he said. The Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi and the OC, preparing the Village for over two years, coordinated the work of a number of agencies to ensure that it was entirely ready to welcome the athletes.
When the foot overbridge near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium collapsed, it led to doubts about the safety of the users. Reports of delays in getting the city ready also caused many teams to believe the Games could not be held. “We had to do a lot of hand-holding and cajoling to ensure that the full complement of 71 nations and territories took part in the Games,” the statement issued by Mr. Kalmadi said.
Keywords: Suresh Kalmadi, CWG 2010
Seeing the budget of commonwealth games, this is be the biggest corruption case in history of India. In the long run, this is going to create the huge debt on this country. And do we have any plan? As games are over, how to use and maintain this sports infrastructure? No definite plan on this is another bigger loss to India. Projected economic benefit to hosting country by experts is another another flawed philosophy without any tangible results - http://beyondprofit.com/can-the-commonwealth-games-deliver-promised-economic-value/.This year whole Ladakh region was washed by floods. How much Prime Minister sanctioned for rebuilding - Rs 150 cr. We spent more than Rs 150 cr in opening ceremony of CWG. India needs to be a mature country and prioritize its spending rather than flowing with the wrong portrait of Super Power, painted by Western World. Let sense prevail.
At the next CWG there should be another event where politicians and sports officers- wearing sports gear- accuse each other of wrongdoing and corruption. It should have uniformed referees to keep score. Televise and broadcast it all over the world. Medals - wood, stone and paper.
yes, it is time for Mr Prime Minister to act and prove that he means business. Also, in future think whether India with so many hungry mouths, children not having good education or health needs to show to the world that we are capable of organising the games. First, let every one be answarable to the country men, come close to them and share their agony and anger. How can people moving in helicapters understand the people on the earth?
Prior to the CWG no action was taken against Suresh Kalmadi the head of the Organising Commitee was understanable and apprecated by all indians as National pride was at stake, but now with the games over Suresh Kalmadi should be put on the grill immediately.
Well Mr Prime Minister your name is at stake and its time to prove to the country how tough & clean you are.
I fail to understand why the postmortem of CWG preparation and corruption. This is a clear case of lack of financial discipline which gives room for corrupt practices.
Given a system of checks and balances controlled by the auditor general or whoever is in charge of overall system of expenditures.
In a well run organization which has given independence to unit heads, it impossible to imagine any possibility of corruption becuase of the system. Of course in Government where left hand does not know what right hand is doing, corruption is bound to be prevalent.
Suresh Kalmadi has stated that he has ensured "smooth delivery" but at what costs is an important point that he seems to have missed out. He has ensured that it is delivered at the highest costs so that it benefits him and his cronies. It is highly deplorable that such trusted lieutenants of the powers that be blatantly misuse their office. A thorough investigation as declared we hope will result in punishing the culprits and ensuring that the huge monies that the government has lost is also recovered. This should become a lighthouse investigation that can prove to the world that politicians in India have really come of age and tax payers money needs to be accounted for by every government servant and cannot be done away by passing the buck. The result of this probe can prove that the "buck stops here". India cannot afford another shoddy exhibition to the world that Indian government servants can get away with such blatant display of callousness from the Suresh Kalmadis of India
Corruption by OC in granting contracts must definately be probed but what about the disastrous mess Delhi Government hs made of Delhi's infrastructure? Why are the city roads still full of potholes? Why is CP still dug up, why have they still not removed construction material from the roads??? What about all the unfinished projects - flyovers, metro-link expressways etc that were promised to Delhi? Delhi govt cannot escape blame for jobs left unfinished.
The biggest problem with India is back-biting and showing fingers at one another. The corruption part of it comes only second. The world was very much satisfied and happy about the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi - in post game analysis. Earlier we all had our negative feelings and judgement of our own. Since everything went well with a happy ending we should focus on positive criticisms for a better future events. Negative tactics now only will spoil the name of our Great Nation. Will the people in authority be mindful of that? Move forward and Progress. Everyone makes mistakes but we must learn from our mistakes for a better future. Stop blaming one another. The media and the journalist should refrain from reporting negative things on the great achievements India made in conducting the games so grand and colourful at the end of the day. Praise and appreciation should be shown.
whatever the statement has been greeted by oc is almost true
Sections of the media,especially the TV news channels, by training their guns exclusively and continuously on Suresh Kalmadi, knowingly or unknowingly protected from criticism government officials and agencies for delays and quality problems in the work executed by them for the CWG project at enormous cost to the government. These government agencies are under investigation by the Central Vigilance Commissioner and other statutory agencies. Sections of the media are still underplaying this while continuing to be investigator, prosecutor and judge in regard to alleged misdoings by Mr.Kalamadi.
This comment, it has to be clarified, is not in any way a defence of Suresh Kalmadi against allegations against him. It is only about proprieties to be observed when media handles suspected criminal activities.
The Centre should make it compulsory and mandatory for building contractors to provide adequate facilities like toilets, canteen, rest-sheds for construction workers. This can keep the labourers and site engineers from using the buildings under construction for such necessities. Just imagine how we could have saved our image, if this was so!
Nice logic from Mr Kalmadi. Now as the games are declared successful, there is no need for any enquiry to uncover the corruption that had almost cramped the CWG.
The games are successful because of those hundreds of volunteers who worked day and night and gave their 100%. I hope Indian government take strict actions against those who are involved in corruption.
Everybody is talking about corruption hold in commonwealth games. It is good. But nobody can blame to a single person till the judgement of corruption. Maybe Suresh Kalmadi was not involved in corruption. I accept that it was his mistake to delay the work on progress but every person tried his best to make the arrangement good including Kalmadi. So, Let us wait for judgement before coming to the conclusion.
A typical example of Indian Politics! Blame game! Wash dirty linens in public and then organise parties for meetings.
Both the departments of State Govt. and the OC need to undergo a thorough scrutiny. However, the officals involved in the scrutiny will need to stand the test being pressurised and indulged into fair investigations.
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