Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken fired a fresh salvo at the BCCI by saying that the government would decide the fate of the Sports Bill and not the BCCI. He also reiterated his objective of bringing the board and other sports federations under the purview of the Right to Information Act.
"What I am trying to say is that for the last so many years, whether it is the IPL or the functioning of other cricketing federation, it has been questioned by various agencies, even the Enforcement Directorate. If the Sports Bill had been in place, that will not happen. One, it will bring transparency in the functioning of the sports federations and it will give players more rights to run these federations," said Maken.
The BCCI recently said that until and unless its reservations were addressed by the sports ministry, the bill would not be acceptable even in its revised form. Maken said transparency in the working of the federations could be achieved only by bringing them under the RTI Act. He said the allegations of tax violation in running of the Indian Premier League should be looked into and asked the BCCI to come under the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI) for its own good.
"As far as resistance to the RTI is concerned, maybe they have something to hide. And resistance to age and tenure rules is because many of them are scared that they will lose their jobs to younger people. Involvement of sportspersons in these Federations would mean that they will lose control over these bodies they run like private clubs at present," Maken told this newspaper.
Bollywood superstar and Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner Shah Rukh Khan was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the holding of IPL II and Maken said such things, if found true, should not have happened.
"These things should not have happened and the government should look into this and the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies are doing that in IPL and related things," Maken said. "It's the public money it (Cricket Board) is getting and private companies should not benefit out of that. It's the money of fans and sports lovers and should be used transparently," he said.
There have been allegations of ill-gotten money flowing into the IPL from foreign tax havens.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA), meanwhile, lashed out at Maken for saying that he had no faith in it when it comes to handling huge amounts of money, with the body's acting-president Vijay Kumar Malhotra demanding a withdrawal of the statement.
Accusing the minister for playing a double game, the IOA warned him that these cheap tactics were going to boomerang on him sooner than later. "Exuberance does not mean that one should cross limits of decency. One has to temper his language," IOA acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said in a statement here.
