PM asked to intercede to save Commonwealth Games

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been asked to intercede to save the Commonwealth Games to protect the country's honour and prestige before the global community.

The appeal was made to Congress MPs, who attended a sub-committee meeting of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Tuesday, after a series of media disclosures on alleged financial regularities in the construction of venues and purchases of equipment for overlays.

According to a OC source, some members attending the meeting presided over by Independent Rajya Sabha MP Tarlochan Singh, told Congress MPS Rajiv Shukla and Vijay Darda that they should request the prime minister to come to the defence of the OC and appeal for the country to rally around the organisation "for the sake of national honoour and pride".

The members felt that the prime concern now is to see the Games are conducted in a manner befitting the country's status in the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations and if there is any truth in the charges the guilty can always be brought to book once the Games are over.

Another member suggested that the best way to get to the truth is for the government to depute two of its senior officials immediately to check the OC records and come clean on all allegations.

One of the MPs suggested that the OC should form a panel of spokespersons to brief the media on a regular basis to scotch all "rumours and innuendos" circulating as "facts."

A senior government official attached to the OC briefed the committee on the actual tender procedures and the firms hired to supply state-of-the-art equipment. He said all the proposals and tenders were scrutinised and vetted by at least three committees, which all have government nominees on them, before they are cleared by the Executive Board of the OC.