Union minister and former IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla’s suspected compromise with BCCI president N. Srinivasan’s camp has not gone down well with the Congress leadership. While the role of BJP leaders Arun Jaitley (BCCI senior vice-president) and Anurag Thakur playing into Mr Srinivasan’s hands have also sullied the saffron image, the Congress had expected Mr Shukla to take a far more proactive stance.
The selfish ways of politicians and their penchant to run down institutions they publicly profess to build are nowhere more apparent than in the way they cling to cricket for its popularity by getting themselves elected to state associations and then the BCCI. All politicians associated with the BCCI over the years are guilty of this, more so those like Mr Shukla and Mr Jaitley who are an integral part of the BCCI while it is going through its biggest crisis of public confidence and credibility in the eyes of millions of cricket fans.
So blatantly self-serving are politicians that it came as simply no surprise when Mr Shukla of the Congress joined hands with BJP leaders to offer an escape route to Mr Srinivasan, who is incidentally very close to the DMK top brass. As in politics, there are no permanent friends or foes in cricket. In this latest round of cricket politics, very strange bedfellows have been spotted at every turn. The image of the game has been hurt so badly by this conspiracy of politicians, businessmen and former cricketers that questions arise on whether the BCCI should be allowed to represent the nation. Questions like the use of “India” in BCCI had also cropped up during legal arguments involving the cricket board earlier.
Furthermore, Mr Shukla’s role has not gone down well with the Congress since it was a party leader and Union minister, Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia, a BCCI member, who was the first to demand Mr Srinivasan’s resignation. Even as the BCCI controversy continued to get murkier and Mr Srinivasan showed no inclination to quit, the Congress high command reportedly signalled to Mr Scindia to make the first move to try clean up the mess. Till then Mr Shukla had maintained a stoic silence and evaded all questions on Mr Srinivasan and the BCCI mess. But with Mr Scindia coming out into the open, Mr Shukla had elbow room to manoeuvre. But interestingly, he announced his resignation as IPL chief only after Season 6 had ended.
What also raised eyebrows is that Mr Shukla, being IPL chief, remained quiet after the spot-fixing erupted. Instead of swinging into action and asking why action should not be taken against teams like Rajasthan Royals and Chenani Super Kings whose players and/or owners had let down the game’s image by spot-fixing or sharing insider information, he allowed the BCCI to take over the reins fully. It was Mr Srinivasan’s henchmen who decided which judges would be nominated to the panel. Also, Mr Shukla evaded direct questions when Mr Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested for links to the betting scam.
Congress leaders feel Mr Shukla was guilty not only of not taking a strong stand on the issue but also of “playing his role in the conspiracy of silence”. A senior leader said: “The party expected a strong stand from Shukla. His reaction was quite embarrassing for the party.” He felt that instead of Mr Scindia, “Shukla should have been the first to take a stand against Srinivasan”.
Sources said Mr Shukla also joined hands with the Srinivasan and Jaitley factions mainly to keep agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, a former BCCI and ICC president, out. There were whispers that the Maratha strongman was planning to return as BCCI chief through the Maharashtra Cricket Association. That was sufficient for Mr Shukla to join hands with the saffron brigade, sources said. A close relative of Mr Shukla is, incidentally, a senior BJP leader. The Congress, which was looking forward to Mr Shukla leading a crusade for cricket, is reportedly “highly disappointed with his role”.