Games Politicians Play

Anyone who had even a tiny doubt about the talk of corruption, hawala and black money involved in Indian Premier League 3 might have been forced to rethink his analyzing ability of the current situation. One of the most powerful politicians of the country finding himself cornered on the murkier wickets of scandal speaks volumes about the manner in which the biggest entertainment of the country was run for last three years.

Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule are still struggling to get rid of the ‘IPL-gate’ taint. There explanation ranged from “we have nothing to do with the Pune bid” to “City Corporation’s chief Aniruddha Deshpande bid personally for the IPL Pune team.” Latest is that, Pawar has asked he has some small stake in the Royal Challengers Bangalore team.

A national daily that Mr Pawar and his immediate family controlled over 16% equity in a Pune-based construction company City Corp, one of the bidders for an IPL cricket team. The company bid Rs 1176 crore for a franchise. It was another matter that Sahara group, which pledged a bigger amount, emerged as the winner. The Pawar family, admitted that the company owned partly by them did try to buy a cricket team. But they tried to put the onus on Deshpande saying he was personally involved in the bid and not the company. This was a brazenly ridiculous pretext which was least expected from a seasoned politician like Pawar. Did he really wanted the countrymen to believe that Deshpande was staking Rs 1176 Crores for and on behalf of himself? Is it possible for a builder, let alone the one who has Pawar family as stakeholders in his company?

Pawar appeared to have in deep water as the opposition parties, mainly Bharaiya Janata Party and Shiv Sena are already gunning for his resignation? BJP was consistently targeting the Sugar-Strongman for his failure on the agriculture front, which he is supposed to manage as the minister. "When the IPL controversy came to the fore, Sharad Pawar and his family members repeatedly said they had nothing to do with it. After this report it is very clear that Pawar has not only mismanaged the food economy of the country but also misled the country," BJP Chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.

The main opposition party also demanded Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the IPL affairs, saying the statements made by Pawar and his family members on the IPL issue were "lame excuses" and the matter should be inquired into "extensively". The party’s demand, however politicized it might sound, has some justification. With a union minister sitting at home over the under-cover deals and a minister bidding his time to do so, the IPL 3 has threw enough worms to infect the polity. The sports has long taken a backseat and it is the cloudy dealing of money that is the talk of the town.

Nation deserves to know who and how took the people for a ride in the name of a sport with biggest fan following. If on the contrary, government, officials and officials continue to impress upon the public that everything is alright with the game, then they either living in the fool’s paradise or thinking that public is. Fortunately or unfortunately, neither of them do so.