New Delhi:The powerful Right To Information (RTI) Act has done it again. As questions were being raised on who appointed Suresh Kalmadi as Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chief and Federal Sports Minister Ajay Maken blamed the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government for his appointment, an RTI activist has made a disclosure.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal, the sharp RTI shooter through his petition procured the information that lawmaker Vijay Kumar Malhotra had proposed the name of Kalmadi as IOA chief in October 2008.
In possession of official documents, Agrawal said: "Maken was perfectly justified in fixing responsibility on BJP for making Kalmadi an all-powerful chief of Organising Committee (OC) for Commonwealth Games 2010. The documents speak of the reality that Malhotra not only proposed Kalmadi's name, but also advocated for giving him full powers to nominate IOA executive committee."
Allegations
As buck-passing continued between the BJP and the PMO (Prime Minister's Office) after an expose that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh backed Kalmadi, the RTI activist alleged Kalmadi used his power to nominate committee members and as a gesture of thanks appointed Malhotra the vice chairman of IOA.
Malhotra has now automatically become the acting chief of IOA by virtue of a return gift post awarded to him by Kalmadi.
With BJP leaders including Sudhanshu Mittal, already under the scanner for CWG-related scams, the role of some other BJP leaders in the scam cannot be ruled out.
"It seems CWG was a friendly money minting game for some common friends in Congress and BJP under the joint leadership of Kalmadi and Malhotra. Many BJP leaders enjoyed luxurious family-trips to foreign countries like China, spending huge amounts of public money, to ‘study' for preparations of CWG Games. But no study report was filed," RTI activist Agrawal said.
Earlier, Maken reiterated in Parliament that Kalmadi's appointment as chief of the OC was a decision taken by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government when India bid for the Games in 2003.
