You want to take out Lalit Modi, you sweat it out. Keep the equity.

This ugly fight is not about cleaning up cricket, but covering it up completely

bvrao

BV Rao | April 21, 2010


IPL commissioner Lalit Modi
IPL commissioner Lalit Modi

You have to give it to the Congress. This party knows how to turn personal vendetta into a pious national mission. 

Look at Mission Modi, for example. The whole party, many ministers and almost all the government's scary alphabets--IT, ED, DRI, IB, CLB, RAW--are out to get him, and the way things are going, get him they will.

I have no equity in IPL, neither do I know a branding beau from Dubai for Modi to sweat about me. So, I don't break a sweat over him either. Just like Modi couldn't care less how tough it is for me to sell a governance magazine to an IPL nation, I couldn't care less if, for his next assignment, he is sent to the Antarctic and asked to launch a version of the IPL there (which I suspect he will welcome considering how he loves to change/shift venues). 

But when this Congress government makes it look like it's taking this Bad Boy down on my behalf, I have serious reservations. For one, I do not know how really bad this boy is, if he is indeed. For another I do not know if he is any, pardon the grammar, badder than the rest of the gang. For a third, I do not know the bossman, Sharad Pawar, is not as involved in all the murky stuff that Modi is supposed to be sitting on top of. 

All I know is this: Modi got one of theirs (Shashi Tharoor), so they have to get Modi. That is fair game as long as they don't fire from the nation's shoulder. If national interest was at the the centre of all this frenetic activity, all the generous leaks about all the slush funds in IPL would have happened six months ago when the IT department is supposed to have prepared a dossier on IPL. Perhaps then a certain very morally and ethically correct minister would not have dared gift Rs 70 crore of other people's money to his friend.

I also know something else that will stop me from celebrating the fall of Modi as the ultimate clean up of the Augean stables of Indian cricket. That fall will not be the clean up that we want, it will be the cover-up that all the politicians of all the parties who are on the BCCI, want and will get.

I don't want to lend my shoulder for this fight. You want to take out Modi, you sweat it out. And, yes, keep the equity.

Comments

 

Other News

Lokayan 26: Indian naval ship sets sail from Livorno, Italy

The Indian Navy’s sail training ship, INS Sudarshini, set sail from Livorno, Italy, on Saturday on completion of a successful port call. During her stay, the ship participated in a series of professional interactions and cross-training visits, strengthening bonds of friendship and maritime partners

Global South: Health cooperation needs institutions to make solutions scalable

September 12 marks the International Day for South-South Cooperation, commemorating the 1978 Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA). Forty-eight years later, its central proposition remains relevant: countries of the Global South can draw on their own knowledge, experience and innovations to address shared d

Reading the mind of Xi Jinping

As India prepares to host the 18th BRICS Summit this weekend, and as prime minister Narendra Modi is set to hold a bilateral meet with president Xi Jinping, China’s growing global influence and the changing dynamics of India-China relations will be under focus. But to understand where China is head

BRICS at 20: From economic weight to global influence

This year marks 20 years of BRICS, with India set to host the grouping’s leaders’ summit this weekend. The anniversary offers an opportune moment to assess BRICS’ growing importance at a time when the effectiveness of global governance and the credibility of multilateralism are under in

Former president Ram Nath Kovind on some of his unforgettable journeys

Triumph of the Indian Republic: My Life, My Struggles By Ram Nath Kovind Rupa Publications, 400 pages, Rs 795   All our presidents so far stand out, each for a different reason. Ram Nath Kovind, the 14th president of India, from 2017 t

Uday Kotak on history, Indian economy, growth and more

Pathbreakers: How 10 Visionary Leaders Transformed India by award-winning journalists  By Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu Rupa Publications, 304 pages, Rs 695  

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter