New Delhi Orders Games Probe - India Real Time - WSJ
New Delhi Orders Games Probe
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Delhi’s former chief minister Sheila Dikshit in the northern Indian city of Amritsar in June 2012.
Delhi’s newly-elected state government on Thursday ordered an investigation into alleged corruption connected to the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the capital by the previous Congress party administration.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party, which was swept into power in December, said it has directed the state’s anti-corruption bureau to probe alleged irregularities in a deal to purchase expensive, imported street lights ahead of the sporting event.
The anti-corruption body’s first step will be to file a preliminary complaint called a first information report, the party said.
“It appears that the people’s money was wasted,” Manish Sisodia, a senior leader of the party, said in a televised news conference Thursday. “We want a thorough and independent investigation.”
This move could bring veteran Congress leader and former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit under the scanner, though Mr. Sisodia said the probe was not intended to target any particular leader. Mrs. Dikshit, who was Delhi’s chief from 1998 to 2013 and presided over preparations for the Games, has denied any wrongdoing.
A spokesman for Mrs. Dikshit declined to comment on the probe Thursday.
“We will have to first look into the terms of reference of the investigation,” Pawan Khera said.
The Delhi government’s decision further complicates the Aam Aadmi Party’s already tense relationship with the Congress, which acts as both a major political rival and a key legislative supporter. The month-old administration led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal depends on Congress for outside support in Delhi’s legislative assembly.
The Aam Aadmi Party was born out of a mass anti-corruption movement andcame to power on the promise of fighting graft. During its campaign, the party’s leaders led a withering attack on Congress, calling it corrupt and arrogant, and presented themselves as the clean alternative.
In elections in December, the political upstart won the second highest number of seats after the Bharatiya Janata Party. But no party had a majority of seats to form a government on its own. While the Aam Aadmi Party took power after Congress offered to support it during major votes in the legislative assembly, ties between the two parties have been bitter and combative.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s decision to launch an investigation against Congress’s former government is likely to make things worse. The Commonwealth Games in October 2010 were marred by scandal, including allegations that the organizers received kickbacks in handing out contracts to companies that provided equipment and services at exorbitant rates.
In an interview to the Wall Street Journal in November, Mrs. Dikshit denied any financial wrongdoing. She bristled at the media’s persistent focus on graft claims, saying she felt “very hurt that we’ve come to a stage where we’ve pulled ourselves down.”
“They were great games. They changed the face of Delhi. And they went off very well,” she said. “Where is the corruption?”
In 2011, Indian federal investigators arrested Suresh Kalmadi, former chairman of the organizing committee for the Games, in connection with alleged financial fraud. He was released on bail the following year.
New Delhi Orders Games Probe
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Delhi’s former chief minister Sheila Dikshit in the northern Indian city of Amritsar in June 2012.
Delhi’s newly-elected state government on Thursday ordered an investigation into alleged corruption connected to the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the capital by the previous Congress party administration.
The ruling Aam Aadmi Party, which was swept into power in December, said it has directed the state’s anti-corruption bureau to probe alleged irregularities in a deal to purchase expensive, imported street lights ahead of the sporting event.
The anti-corruption body’s first step will be to file a preliminary complaint called a first information report, the party said.
“It appears that the people’s money was wasted,” Manish Sisodia, a senior leader of the party, said in a televised news conference Thursday. “We want a thorough and independent investigation.”
This move could bring veteran Congress leader and former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit under the scanner, though Mr. Sisodia said the probe was not intended to target any particular leader. Mrs. Dikshit, who was Delhi’s chief from 1998 to 2013 and presided over preparations for the Games, has denied any wrongdoing.
A spokesman for Mrs. Dikshit declined to comment on the probe Thursday.
“We will have to first look into the terms of reference of the investigation,” Pawan Khera said.
The Delhi government’s decision further complicates the Aam Aadmi Party’s already tense relationship with the Congress, which acts as both a major political rival and a key legislative supporter. The month-old administration led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal depends on Congress for outside support in Delhi’s legislative assembly.
The Aam Aadmi Party was born out of a mass anti-corruption movement andcame to power on the promise of fighting graft. During its campaign, the party’s leaders led a withering attack on Congress, calling it corrupt and arrogant, and presented themselves as the clean alternative.
In elections in December, the political upstart won the second highest number of seats after the Bharatiya Janata Party. But no party had a majority of seats to form a government on its own. While the Aam Aadmi Party took power after Congress offered to support it during major votes in the legislative assembly, ties between the two parties have been bitter and combative.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s decision to launch an investigation against Congress’s former government is likely to make things worse. The Commonwealth Games in October 2010 were marred by scandal, including allegations that the organizers received kickbacks in handing out contracts to companies that provided equipment and services at exorbitant rates.
In an interview to the Wall Street Journal in November, Mrs. Dikshit denied any financial wrongdoing. She bristled at the media’s persistent focus on graft claims, saying she felt “very hurt that we’ve come to a stage where we’ve pulled ourselves down.”
“They were great games. They changed the face of Delhi. And they went off very well,” she said. “Where is the corruption?”
In 2011, Indian federal investigators arrested Suresh Kalmadi, former chairman of the organizing committee for the Games, in connection with alleged financial fraud. He was released on bail the following year.
