Kalmadi’s invite: Politics or sycophancy?

He has turned down a ministerial berth for now, but Congressmen have other posts to offer party general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organising committee of the Commonwealth Games, has written two letters inviting him to become a member of the multi-crore games project. But there’s more to it than meets the eye.

Senior officials of the Commonwealth organising committee said the young Gandhi was invited to join the preparations since his father, late Rajiv Gandhi, was actively involved in the Asian Games and had worked to make it a huge success.

However, there could be a hidden agenda behind the invite to Rahul as there is a growing rift between the sports ministry, Delhi government and Commonwealth authorities.

Apparently, the sports ministry and Delhi government have got together and are upset with the way preparations are being made by Commonwealth authorities, who choose not to give much importance to the two government bodies.

Commonwealth organising committee sources say that if Rahul were to become part of the preparations it would help them push their case and also tame the bureaucratic tussle going on since the project began.

Congress sources neither confirmed nor denied Kalmadi’s invite to Rahul to join the Commonwealth Games committee but said that the move could just be “an act of sycophancy.”

“It’s not known if such an offer was made to Rahul or if Rahul has expressed his desire to join the committee. Demands like these or like the ones asking him to join the government keep cropping up from time to time. Rahul can best answer whether or not he is accepting these offers,” a source said.