Mr. Aiyar wrote the letter after studying a report prepared by the Hazards Centre on expenditure, debilitating debts and long-terms effects host cities were saddled with after organising multi-event sporting extravaganzas like the Olympics. The letter and the report were also accompanied by an analytical note on the report by then Sports Secretary S. K. Arora.
‘Preserving fiefdom’
The Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs had furnished seasoned RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal with these documents and also internal communication within the PMO including a file noting by Joint Secretary Sanjay Mitra which said: “No further actions is required on this.”
The same internal communiqué also noted that while the Sports Ministry was insisting on “transparency and accountability”, the OC wanted “to preserve its fiefdom”. The NGO report’s references to multi-national companies and consulting firms monopolising various aspects of conduct of international sporting events found mention in this communiqué but placed the onus on substantiating these references on the NGO.
Addressing a press conference on Friday, Dunu Roy of the Hazards Centre asked on what basis a Joint Secretary in the PMO decided that “no action was required” despite a Minister in the Cabinet pointing out the lack of “transparency and accountability” in a Government-funded body.
Mr. Roy also said it was regrettable that though he had forwarded the report to several Members of Parliament, none of them did their duty to question in Parliament this profligacy and misspending of public money.
Regarding Mr. Aiyar’s mention in his letter to the PMO of the “disastrous path that heads of sports federations, doubling as statesmen in Parliament are attempting to take us down”, Mr. Roy said: “What does all this say about the accountability of Parliamentary democracy?”