Blame game starts for lost Asiad bid

NO COMMENTS: Aiyar said that India's sporting future didn't rely on image-building exercises connected with big sporting events.

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New Delhi: A day after New Delhi lost the bid for hosting the Asian Games in 2014, the game of accusations and allegations have begun. While the Indian Olympic Association is ready to pass the buck, the Sports Ministry is not ready to accept the blame.

"I'm not in the business for promoting your headlines. I think Mr Kalmadi is entitled to be disappointed. I think as a citizen of a democratic country, he has the right to his views and I think I, as a Minister of Sports, have the right to say 'no comments' on what the Chairman of the Organising Committee has to say," Mani Shankar Aiyar told CNN-IBN on Wednesday, after returning from Kuwait.

Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar's stern response was to what Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi said on Tuesday, soon after New Delhi was knocked out of the bid race by Incheon.

"There were too many stories going around that 'India is a divided house', 'the Sports Minister does not want something', they were all over in the Gulf News and the Kuwait News. So we could not fight that," Kalmadi said on Tuesday.

Amidst all the allegations and accusations, Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar hardly minced any words when he admit that India's future as a sporting destination depends lesser on image-building exercises and sporting extravaganzas, but more on tapping the rural talent.

"India's future as a sporting nation depends much less on image-building exercises connected with mega sports events, than with reaching organised, formal sports and games facilities to 72 crore, out of 77 crore, Indian children, adolescents and youth, who are completely deprived," Aiyar added.

What's more, Aiyar is confident that by following a similar policy, India could well see itself among the best sporting nations of the world by the 2012 London Olympics.

While pollution and traffic could have played a part in New Delhi's defeat, several smaller countries also reportedly ditched India after assuring them their support.

Nevertheless, the battle lines have been drawn and the blame game has begun, after the first salvo was fired by Kalmadi on Tuesday.