The Supreme Court held that Srinivasan, whose son-in-law was involved in match fixing, had with three others named by the court committed a “misdemeanor”. Media is alleging that the BCCI President was aware of his son-in-law’s involvement but did not stop him. That makes him culpable. But was Srinivasan the only abettor of the match fixing corruption?
Consider some facts conveniently glossed over by media. A year and half before the IPL scam became public the ICC Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) had submitted a report alerting a possible scam.
The report naming likely Indian suspects was presented to the ICC in January 2012. The Delhi police unearthed the IPL scam in May 2013. During the intervening year and half the BCCI did nothing. Were the BCCI Board members sleeping? Later the BCCI set up its own ant-corruption unit.
After the scam erupted some BCCI Board members half-heartedly advised Srinivasan to resign on moral grounds which he refused. Meanwhile the police had disclosed the corruption, the match fixing, and the role of the betting syndicates controlled by Dawood Ibrahim who allegedly used the enormous funds generated by the scam to aid terrorists. How did the BCCI Board members react to all this? Board members confined themselves merely to maneuvering in order to wrest control of BCCI from Srinivasan.
Only one Board member, Jyotiraditya Scindia, publicly demanded Srinivasan’s resignation. The members of the Board included Arun Jaitley, Narendra Modi and Anuragh Thakur from the BJP, and C.P Joshi, Rajeev Shukla and Jyotiraditya Scindia from the Congress. Several regional politicians were also members as heads of their respective state cricketing associations.
Farooq Abdullah of the National Conference in J&K was one regional member who publicly supported Srinivasan. At a dinner hosted by former BCCI President Jagmohan Dalmiya in Kolkata when the issue was discussed all these politicians tacitly endorsed Srinivasan. Former Test cricketer and BJP legislator Kirti Azad made a veiled attack against his senior party colleagues. He said: “The BCCI has become Gandhiji's three monkeys - see no evil, say no evil and hear no evil. They are hand in gloves. Nobody wants to fight with Srinivasan because they want to be the next president and if they protest against him now, they will lose his votes.”
Surprisingly Narendra Modi continued to seek control of BCCI despite becoming Prime Minister. After stepping down as President of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) on May 30 he had Amit Shah elected in his place on June 13. While Modi is busy as PM and Shah as BJP President they continue seeking control of BCCI despite its corruption and threat to national security. Are they leaders who will end corruption and black money?
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