New Delhi: Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CWG OC) Chairman Suresh Kalmadi on Thursday defended himself against the charges of tampering with the original bid documents that was exposed by CNN-IBN on Wednesday.
Speaking to CNN-IBN, Kalmadi also hit out at former sports minister Vikram Verma for bringing up the issue after so many years and said that the International Olympic Committee had made the decision over his selection as the CWG chairman and that it had been unanimously accepted by the group of ministers.
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“That I will be the chairman is some seven-year-old story and this matter was over then. I don’t know why Vikram Verma kept quiet all these years. As Verma was the sports minister he should have objected then. But now that he’s bringing it up, I am very surprised about it,“ said Kalmadi.
However, The Bharatiya Janta Party has decided to pursue the matter and have demanded an inquiry. The party says it will take up the issue in Parliament as well.
Earlier, documents accessed by CNN-IBN raised questions over the legitimacy of the CWG OC headed by Kalmadi. They indicated that the original bid documents submitted by the OC to 72 countries of the Commonwealth in 2003 were tampered with.
In the original bid, cleared by the Vajpayee Administration in 2003, the Chairman of the CWG OC was to have been nominated by the government, while the IOA president’s position was to be that of Vice Chairman.
However, in the updated bid copy, terms like ‘government nominee’ and ‘IOA President’ were removed, thus enabling Kalmadi to become the OC Chairman when the Committee was finally set up on February 10, 2005.
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