CWG scam: BJP, Congress start slanging match

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress engaged in slanging match with the former demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe on Commonwealth Games (CWG) corruption and the latter hitting back by dragging its rival leaders into the quagmire of the scandal.

?Our sportspersons have made India proud at the recently concluded 19th Commonwealth Games-Delhi 2010 with their stupendous performance in various disciplines. But all was not well with the Commonwealth Games-Delhi 2010,? said BJP chief Nitin Gadkari in a press statement.

?It all looked fine and on track till the bid was won. Then where did we fail and who all nearly let us down? The world community in general and the people of India in particular need to know.

?India won the bid in November 2003, and it took 16 months to put the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee(CGOC) in place and the 35-member committee included Rahul Gandhi, Kapil Sibal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ajay Makan, Jitin Prasad and Sandeep Dikshit.?

Gadkari said the first meeting of the Infrastructure Coordination Committee held in Delhi on March 15, 2005 took note of the requirements of venues and their up- gradation and the construction of the Games village giving all the government bodies like the Urban Development Ministry, the DDA, the Delhi Government & other agencies more than five years to accomplish the task without compromising international standards.

?Their proposals were approved by a group of ministers and later ratified by the union cabinet. The irregularities and bungling in the tendering process of these projects was scandalous involving several thousand crores,? he said.

The first story about malpractices and corruption in Commonwealth Games, according to Gadkari, came to light on July 30, 2010 when the UK-based AM Films highlighted the case of payments with no written contract agreement.

?The CGOC is alleged to have paid AM Films, an Indian-owned firm in London, over 450,000 pounds (over Rs.30 million) for services during last year?s Queen?s Baton Relay inaugural without proper tendering and paperwork.

?Corruption was suspected in award of tenders for different projects of the games including the stadia and other infrastructure and granting of contracts in hiring or purchase of equipment such as air conditioners and treadmills and even toilet paper.

?The Comptroller and Auditor General of India commented adversely on the cost overruns for the stadium being built or refurbished for the Games,? said the BJP president.

Gadkari further said, stung by corruption charges and allegations of sub-standard infrastructure and inordinate delays made by the BJP leaders in parliament and outside, and amidst adverse media campaign, the central government went into overdrive to assure the participating nations that the stadium will be completed on time for the Oct. 3-14 Commonwealth Games.

In his first report on ?Commonwealth Games loot?, Gadkari said: ??callousness and total apathy and insensitivity of the government agencies and sports bodies in unabashedly wasting the tax payers money resulted in the Games budget initially billed at Rs. 2000 Crores going up to a whopping Rs.70,000 crores.?

?Now the Commonwealth Games dirty linen is sought to be washed in public by Sheila Dikshit (Delhi Chief Minister), Suresh Kalmadi & others, with Kalmadi demanding probe not only into the CGOC Rs. 1,620 Crore budget but also into the Rs. 16,000 Crore budget of the Delhi Government.?

?The BJP strongly believes that all these inquiries and investigations must be expedited to reach some logical conclusions at the earliest so that the guilty could be punished without any further delay,? said Gadkari.

He further said: ?It is high time to expose the nexus between the partners in the Commonwealth Games loot and those providing them political patronage by condoning this mess. People of India have a solemn constitutional right to know who the real culprits of this national shame are.?

?The BJP demands the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee at the earliest to probe into this monumental scam of Commonwealth Games Multi-Million Loot,? he added.

Gadkari?s comments come shortly after senior party leader Sudhanshu Mittal?s office was raided by the Income Tax Department regarding Rs 200 crore contract he received for providing for treadmills, chairs and umbrellas at the Games.

Mittal cracked the deal via his nephew Vinay?s company Deepali Design and Exhibits and its foreign partner.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari told a press conference that the BJP president “has excelled himself in irresponsibility on Tuesday and called the press conference to divert the attention from its own leaders and associates”.

“The demeanor of the BJP president is of a spoilt child and so we do not take him seriously otherwise,” he said.

“All that he [Gadkari] said is not new. They said it all in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. But now it seems the president is scared because several BJP leaders and party’s associates are under the ambit of the probe,” Tiwari said.