PMO responsible for Kalmadi's appointment: BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday sharpened its attack against Sports Minister Ajay Maken for allegedly misleading the Lok Sabha on appointment of Suresh Kalmadi as Commonwealth Games organising Committee head, saying the Comptroller and Auditor General report makes it clear that prime minister's office responsible for it.

"I had moved a motion to suspend the Question Hour in Lok Sabha to discuss the suo motu statement made by Youth Affairs and Sports Ajay Maken on August 2 amid the din in Lok Sabha. My second notice was a breach of privilege by Maken in the sense that he had misled the House by concealing a great deal of information," senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said.

Sinha said despite his best efforts in the House, Speaker Meira Kumar did not accept his request. With the government agreeing to a debate on the issue on Tuesday, Sinha will initiate the debate in Lok Sabha while Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley will do so in the Upper House.

BJP sources said the party's main target will be Maken and through him the prime minister's office. Maken had charged in his statement that the erstwhile NDA government had appointed Kalmadi as chief of CWG Organising Committee.

"On October 26, 2004, Kalmadi wrote a letter to the prime minister saying the Indian Olympic Association chief should be chairperson of the organising committee....On October 28, 2004, the PM acknowledged his letter. The CWG federation also accepted it. On December 6, 2004, the PM sent a communication to the GOM (headed by Arjun Singh) which accepted it on January 29, 2005," Sinha said.

Ironically, in this whole process Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit- whose resignation the opposition is demanding and has even forced an adjournment of Parliament on the issue is likely to go almost unscathed.

"The whole objective of the statement was to say that as organising committee chairperson Kalmadi was responsible and put all the blame on the National Democratic Alliance (by alleging the BJP led government had appointed him)," Sinha said.

He alleged that Maken had hidden some facts and revealed some in his statement in Lok Sabha. "The bid document signed in 2003 also has a letter from Congress President Sonia Gandhi," Sinha said.

"The fact is that PMO is still working at an arm's length on this issue," he alleged. BJP has also charged Kalmadi with circulating a "forged document" in the form of an updated bid dated December 2003.

"There was no official endorsement of the updated bid. The document actually surfaced in September 2004," Sinha said, adding that the document was forged. The opposition has also pointed out that the organizing committee was registered as a society on February 10, 2005.

"Maken has pegged his entire argument on one thing- that the Host City contract was signed in November 2003 by Kalmadi, lieutenant governor of New Delhi and secretary sports.... But there is no evidence to suggest that it is legally binding to make Kalmadi the OC Chairperson." He charged Maken of "misleading the House by hiding crucial facts" and putting all the blame on NDA government.

"Is Kalmadi a BJP member? In 2009, Congress gave him the Lok Sabha ticket and he won. Today when he is in Tihar jail, it seems he did everything and there was nobody else.

They (Congress leaders), poor souls, are not at all responsible," Sinha said. The BJP maintained that the Congress should treat the CAG report as "gospel truth" as it has done with such reports in the past.