Why Not Hold The Games in Manipur, Asks Aiyar

New Delhi, Aug 26 : Keeping up his campaign against organisation of Commonwealth Games, senior Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar on Wednesday questioned the rationale of Delhi hosting the event and said it would have been a "very good answer" to insurgents if it would have been held in Manipur.

Speaking to a group of Delhi University students at Press Club, Aiyar wondered why such mega events come back to Delhi again and again. Even if it is organised here, he asked, why localities in the outskirts like Bawana are ignored.

"There are 37 days to go in which the government has to fill the gaps to ensure a spectacular Games which it has promised us. I am content to wait. The Games will last for 15 days. I will come back. Neither are you going away nor I am going away," Aiyar, a vocal critic of the Games, said.

He said, "What is the point in crying over spoilt milk? We have lost the Games."
Aiyar said there was a "danger" of Asian Games 2019 and Olympics being organised in the city and asked why was it that mega events come back to the city every time.

"Manipur is a tiny state. It bagged the highest number of medals in the National Games (when I was the Sports Minister)...If Rs 35,000 crore (an estimate of the cost of CW Games expenditure) is spent in Manipur, if we conduct the Commonwealth Games there, the insurgents would have got a very good answer," he said.

"There are excellent facilities in Imphal. Why do we keep coming back to Delhi," he said.

Aiyar took potshots at Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi saying that he was not invited to the National Games despite being the country's Sports Minister.

He also asked why the Games should not be conducted in Bawana in outer Delhi, which has a huge number of SC population. "This area is used to burn rubbish only. What message are you giving to its people?" he said.

Later, talking to reporters, Aiyar said sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar did not seek money for composing the welcome song of Afro-Asian Games held in the country earlier.

"He did not seek money nor did we give him money," Aiyar said when asked about a media report in this regard.