CWG scam: Oppn targets PM on Kalmadi's appointment

Armed with the Comptroller and Auditor General report, opposition on Tuesday targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief. They also demanded in Parliament that heads should roll besides seeking a Supreme Court monitored Central Bureau Investigation probe to unravel the truth.

The Bharatiya Janata Party also sought to drag in United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, saying Suresh Kalmadi had claimed to have been appointed as Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chairman after a 'series of meetings' with her.

During a spirited debate in both Houses of Parliament, the opposition also attacked P Chidambaram, the then finance minister, saying he sanctioned funds despite objections.

Sports Minister Ajay Maken was accused of engaging in 'monumental deception' by the opposition parties which were unsparing on Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as well.

The Congress defended the government, with its members saying that the National Democratic Alliance government had handed over all rights to the CWG management under the Host City contract and no legal action could be taken as it could be challenged only in the British courts. They also attacked the CAG.

"The matter goes to the prime minister's office... The file finally goes to the honourable prime minister," said Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley while participating in the debate on Maken's statement of August 2.

Citing documents available with him, he said the then Sports Minister Sunil Dutt and every officer of the PMO were against Kalmadi being made the OC chief. "On December 6, 2004, the prime minister overruled each one of them and issued an order appointing Kalmadi as the OC chairman and chief of the executive board," he said.

Jaitley said Dutt had, in fact, complained to the prime minister that it was decided that he would be the OC chief but 'minutes were tampered with and the decision to make him the chairman was tampered with'. After Singh appointed Kalmadi, the group of ministers also toed the same line, he said.

"The entire ministry of sports, the entire bureaucracy of the PMO says 'this (Kalmadi appointment) can't be done'. The prime minister overrules each one of them," Jaitley said. In the Lok Sabha, BJP's Yashwant Sinha accused Singh of inaction against Kalmadi despite complaints by then sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyer and Dutt.

He insisted that nothing prevented the government from sacking Kalmadi, who anyway was removed from the OC after the Games were over last October. Responding to the Congress argument that Kalmadi had been appointed by the NDA government, Sinha took a dig at the ruling party for disowning the Congress member of Parliament after he was imprisoned.

"Who is Suresh Kalmadi? Who gave Kalmadi ticket to contest elections? Who brought him to the Lok Sabha? And now after Kalmadi has landed in Tihar Jail, he is being projected as a BJP man," he said.