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75 ‘35kcr for
Commonwealth Games a waste, should’ve gone to poor kids.
A verbal spat was
initiated by Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar when he was asked to comment on
the rainy morning by some media persons outside Parliament House. “I am
delighted in a way because rains are causing difficulties for the Commonwealth
Games. Basically, I will be very unhappy if the games are successful, because
then they will start bringing Asian Games, Olympic Games and all those,” the
former sports minister replied.
Explaining his
opposition to the Games, Mr. Aiyar said a whopping Rs.35,000 crore were being
spent on the sporting event, when it should have been spent on children who did
not have the basic facilities to play. “Those who are patronising the Games can
only be evil. They cannot be God. Thousands of crores are being spent on
circuses like these while the common children are being deprived of basic
facilities to play,” Mr. Aiyar said, adding that all ‘expectations’ from the
Games had been belied.
Mr. Aiyar also
alleged that India had bribed other Commonwealth nations for the Games. “To take
the Games, the Olympic association of every Commonwealth country was given $ 1
lakh . . . . it was given to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Britain. Those
countries did not need this money,” he said adding that “I would call it a
bribe.”
(Source : The Economic Times, dated 28-7-2010)
