Will the Asian Games bid loss blessing in disguise? Part I

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A couple of days ago, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) at the end of its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Kuwait, allotted the 2014 Asian Games to Korean city of Incheon. It came as a severe blow for the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), the only other contender for the host right, which worked for Delhi.

The IOA president Suresh Kalmadi, a sitting Member of Parliament and also former minister for Railways, openly blamed federal government’s Sports and Youth Affairs minister Mani Shankar Aiyar for the fiasco. The IOA president quoted some of the utterances of the sports minister, who has the habit of calling spade a spade because of which the former diplomat faced lot of difficulties too, reason behind India appearing a divided house in front of the OCA.

The Minister was against India hosting any major international sports meets including the Commonwealth Games, which, accordingly to him, will not make any difference to poor menfolk who live in slums opposite mega sporting structures.

The Minister’s view and the IOA President’s ire are hogging the limelight and the opinion is mixed. Some of them on expected lines like the Sports Ministry supporting the Minister’s line of thought and Sports Federations, who often assail government for interference though they cannot survive even a day without government’s doles, castigating minister for his ‘unpatriotic’ act and actions.

Now the question is, how could India bid in the first place without Sports Minister’s backing?

Here come into the picture the complex sports (mal) administration scenario of the country.

The Cabinet Committee, which has the power to approve such mega meets, cleared the IOA’s proposal only the last week though the IOA has started its works on canvassing with the OCA members long ago.

In the Cabinet Committee meeting the Sports Minister has opposed the IOA’s Asiad bid. He want such huge money should be spent on creating badly needed infrastructure. Yet, the IOA got the necessary approval.

How the Cabinet gives approval for a thing for which its own Minister is against?

Such things rarely happens. It happened in this case because of one important factor.

The lobby interested in organizing mega events is growing in strength day by day. Most Sports Federations’ presidents are die-hard politicians. The heads of All India Football Federation, Indian Rowing Federation and Indian Table Tennis Association, for instance, are cabinet ministers in the present government. They hold powerful portfolios including Parliament Affairs, Industry, Information and Broadcasting and others. Heads of most provincial Olympic Association, which forms the electoral college of IOA, are Chief Ministers, that is, the Chief Executive Officers of these States.

The Sports Federation bosses in general and the powerful ministers in the cabinet in particular have grown abominably. Twisting the Olympic charter very conveniently, they were successful in creating an image of their Federations as totally Autonomous. That too without any accountability. They think and behave more powerful than the Sports Minister or Sports Ministry. They do not follow vital aspects sports ministry’s guidelines, float them with immunity and still get the government’s grant, huge sums at that, because of political clout and the carefully created myth called autonomy.

Sports, especially the Olympic disciplines, does not attract the major political consideration because it is not a serious matter in the overall scenario obtaining in the country against the backdrop of increasing poverty, unemployment, water shortage, uneven wealth distribution, youth unrest and other.

This is the ideal situation for some alert politicians and retired police personnel to make use of their personal and political clout to get into the Sports Federations. These vicious elements have grown in numbers and gained near total dominance. Their combined lobby has become so strong that the Sports Ministers, be it Uma Bharti or Mani Shankar Aiyar were considered non-entities by the Sports Federations and its spearhead the IOA.

When this writer recently met Mani Shankar Aiyar as a part of a delegation, he openly said that he is not invited for many meetings held by the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee. He looked dejected at that.

How dare the IOA ignore the federal government’s Sports Minister? The IOA is habituated to it. Because, the politicians and the construction lobby knows the big chunk of money that would be allotted for hosting major international meets, the turn over of IOA and its say on many technical aspects are going to decide many things and not the Sports Ministry. The lobby also knows the Sports Ministry and its Minister could be bullied by bogey and false accusations. Remember whenever India fails badly at the global Sports Meets its Sports Minister who faces the fury of the parliament, not the