Lucknow, Sep 6 (IANS) Former Indian cricketer and BJP MP from Darbhanga Kirti Azad on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on politicians and non-experts holding positions in sporting organisations and sought a "complete clean up".
Speaking at an event in the state capital to honour former hockey Olympians and coaches, Azad, who has since been suspended by the BJP for his comments on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, once again trained his guns on the senior BJP leader.
Insisting that he would stick to his earlier allegations of corruption and wrong doing under Jaitley's watch, he added that he did not fear for the consequences.
"My father always taught me, as a child to be honest and to call a spade and spade, whatever be the cost and I am only sticking to what he taught me" he said as the gathering applauded him.
"Main gadhe ko gadha hi kahoonga, ghoda nahin" he said acerbically.
He also came down heavily on the likes of Sharad Pawar, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Rajeev Shukla for all the mess the sport of cricket finds itself in today and demanded that the sporting fraternity should be kept at arms length from people who have nothing to do with sports.
Welcoming the setting up of a task force for the next two Olympics, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the former cricketer, who was part of the 1983 World Cup winning side, said that the initiative was a welcome one. But he cautioned that until the sports sector was cleansed of the "money seeking and non-serious" decision makers, this task force would also be a non-starter.
"All major sporting organisations in the country are packed with people ho have nothing to do with sports, they are simply not bothered if you win or lose, its the money that matters for them" he mused while recalling how a hardcore sportsperson would cry at a victory or a loss.
Terming such office bearers as 'illegal squatters', Azad said time had come to clean up the sporting system and announced that soon he would be criss-crossing the country on a campaign for the same.
"Time has come when the country of a billion concentrates on some sports and allow, encourage, promote and patronise talents who have the ability to bring laurels to the nation" he further said.
He also urged Modi to ensure that the Lodha Committee recommendations are acceptation in toto and pointed out that once this was done, there would be no looking back for the sports fraternity in India.
