Commonwealth Games Organising Comm-ittee chairman Suresh Kalmadi on Saturday received yet another snub, this time from his party leader, Mrs Sonia Gandhi. He was not invited to the function organised by Mrs Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence to felicitate the country’s medal winners in the recently concluded Games.
On Friday, Mr Kalmadi had received a similar snub from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who too had omitted Mr Kalmadi from the guest list for the felicitation function at his residence.
On Friday the PM had also ordered a high-level probe into the alleged irregularities committed during the Games, which is to be carried out by former Comptroller and Auditor General of India V.K. Shunglu.
The Congress, which Mr Kalmadi represents in the Rajya Sabha, sought to play down these two snubs on Saturday by claiming that only the medal winners had been invited. This isn’t entirely correct though as sports minister M.S. Gill was invited on both occasions.
Given the allegations of irregularities and corruption that Mr Kalmadi found himself charged with in the run-up to the Games, it’s not surprising that the Congress is now trying to distance itself from him.
On Saturday, party spokesman Mohan Prakash told reporters that “only medal winners were invited”.