Olympian and Arjuna awardee Anju Bobby George on Thursday accused Kerala’s Marxist Sports Minister EP Jayarajan, who had last week described boxing legend Muhammad Ali as a sportsman from the State during his obituary reference, of allegedly insulting her and others in the Kerala State Sports Council by calling them corrupt.
Anju, president of the Sports Council, lodged a complaint with CPI(M) Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan but he opted to defend his colleague in the Cabinet and party. Anju was appointed Sports Council president by the previous Congress-led UDF Government and this is thought to be the reason why Jayarajan had allegedly turned against her and others of the council.
According to Anju, who had made history when she won a medal in the World Championships in Athletics in 2003, the incident took place on Tuesday when she, along with the council vice-president, went to meet Minister Jayarajan, who is also a member of the CPI(M) central committee, after the new lDF Government came to power.
“We thought he would ask us about the status of sports in the State. Though this was the first meeting between the Minister and the council, he said, “You were all nominated by the previous Government. So you all are other party’s members.” He also said that all appointments and transfers we were making were illegal,” Anju told the media.
According to her, Jayarajan objected to her availing airfare from Bangalore, where she was based, to Thiruvananthapuram for attending council meetings and other official purposes. “This is all illegal. This is all corruption. I can stop this,” she quoted the Minister as saying, adding that he had accused all the council members of
corruption.
The long-jumper clarified that she had given a representation to the previous Government for permitting her to avail air fare for her travels between Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram for the purposes of the Sports Council and that this had been accepted. This had been sanctioned by an order of the Ministry of Finance, she added.
Stating that Preeja Sreedharan, PR Sreejesh and Kerala Cricket Association president TC Mathew were the other members of the council, Anju said, “We don’t belong to any party. Sports is our party. We are just doing our duty. If the Government can’t accept that, it can ask us to leave. But calling us corrupt is unacceptable.”
Asked if she was planning to quit from the council, she told the media that no decision had yet been taken. “We are just sportspersons. It was my duty to inform the Chief Minister about the Sports Minister’s behavior. Just because we were nominated by the previous Government, they can’t call us corrupt and remove us on that excuse,” Anju said.
Jayarajan had reportedly ordered dismissal of all transfers in the council. When she described to him the practical difficulties of such a move and how it could affect the lives and careers of many persons, the Minister threatened her, Anju said. “When someone heads a department as Minister, he should have some understanding of how it works,” she said.
However, Jayarajan denied the allegation and said that the athlete was very happy when she left the meeting and he had no idea why she had made such a charge against him. “No, never… I haven’t behaved rudely with her,” the Minister said, adding that he did not know that Anju had lodged a complaint with the Chief Minister.
Defending Jayarajan, Chief Minister Pinarayi said he had not insulted the athlete. “As far as I know, the Minister had asked her about her air travels and told her that this was not proper practice. How can that be an insultIJ Anju had met me and I told her that I haven’t seen her as a politician,” Pinarayi said.
Meanwhile, the Opposition attacked Jayarajan for the insult he allegedly meted out to the athlete. State Congress president VM Sudheeran wanted the Chief Minister to control Jayarajan while Congress’s former Sports minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said, “One shouldn’t say that all sportspersons of the State should be loyal to a single party.”
Jayarajan had made himself a laughing stock last week when he described boxing legend Muhammad Ali as a Kerala sportsman who had won many medals for the State during his obituary reference.