Congress suspends Kalmadi

PTI

New Delhi, 25 April 2011: Suresh Kalmadi, sacked CWG organizing commmittee chief, on Monday appeared to be in for more trouble as Congress, having suspended him, did not rule out further disciplinary action in the wake of his arrest by CBI in connection with alleged graft in the Commonwealth Games.

 

“Let there be no ambiguity... at appropriate time, appropriate demonstrable and visible action will be taken,” party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters at the AICC briefing responding to questions on whether Mr. Kalmadi’s arrest was an embarrassment for the party and whether he would be removed as an MP after being seen as a symbol of corruption by the middle class.

 

Mr. Kalmadi was earlier removed from the post of Congress Parliamentary Party Secretary after controversies hit the Games. After the Games, he was sacked as chief of the Orgnaizing Committee by the government.

 

 

The Congress MP from Pune was arrested on Monday on allegations of conspiracy to favour a private firm in Switzerland by awarding contract at inflated cost of Rs 141 crore in the CWG.

 

Seeking to take a high moral ground on the issue of corruption, Mr. Tewari said that Congress party has acted whenever there a “whiff of corruption” and it has been a tradition in his party.

 

He said it was Congress-led UPA government that had set up the Shunglu committee and party President Sonia Gandhi had made it clear during a Congress Parliamentary Party meeting last year that investigations into allegations of corruption and irregularities would be carried out once the Games are over and guilty will not be spared.