A Letter to Sonia Gandhi regarding Suresh Kalmadi

1. 6th August, 2010
To,
Smt. Sonia Gandhi
President
All India Congress.
Respected Soniaji,
Arogya Sena is a national organization having branches across 5 states of our
country. Since its foundation in 1995, Arogya Sena has relentlessly worked to
take up challenges of natural as well as man-made disasters and also to take up
challenges of public, social and political health of our nation. Arogya Sena is not
a NGO, it's a peple's movement, which adores socialist ideology. Arogya Sena
has provided free medical treatment to 40,000 patients during various major
natural disasters and distributed medicines worth Rs. 50 lacs till today without
any government help or international organization's aid. Similarly Arogya Sena
has fearlessly opposed anything which could harm nation's integrity and interest
of our people.
I am forced to write this letter with deep anguish in my heart about the whole
fiasco of forthcoming Commonwealth Games. Any international sports event is
a matter of pride for any country even though we prefer to concentrate on getting
more gold medals in international sports events rather than holding such
extravaganza with public money in a country like ours where 77% of population
has monthly income less than Rs. 600/- and where even cities lack good
infrastructure. Even though we did not oppose holding of Commonwealth
Games with a hope that it would encourage sports culture and boost development
of quality infrastructure. But the blatant corruption in the preparations for Delhi
Commonwealth Games has not even tarnished hopes of 1.1 billion Indians but
has hurt our national pride. The organizing committee has crossed all the limits
of corruption by fudging contracts, forging documents and manipulating prices.
The Indian High Commission in London has accused the OC of tampering with
E-mails. Every day new facts are pouringout about missappropriation of public
funds and massive escalations in the budget for the CWG. Arogya Sena very
seriously holds our own Pune MP Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, Chairman of OC,
responsible for this, though Mrs. Sheila Dixit and sports ministry cannot escape
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2. the blot. Why we consider Mr. Kalmadi as the main culprit because he is a
master political manipulator, with a brief stint with BJP in the past, who has
never raised his voice for the people of Pune be it floods, epidemic of Swine Flu,
watershortage, inflation or fires in slums. Instead has been busy throughout his
political carrier with various extravaganzas which has always reminded me of
Nero playing fiddle when Rome was burning. When you with your Italian
background has adopted this country as your country, sacrificed the prime
minister's mighty chair for the Gandhi-Nehru-Patel's Congress Party how can
tolerate party men with Nero's mentality to be public representatives?
So we as Arogya Sena sincerely appeal to you to put moral pressure on
Mr. Kalmadi to resign his both the jobs, chairmanship of OC and Membership
of parliament because he has lost his moral authority to hold these posts. There
is no dirth of able, dynamic and clean people in the country who can stir the
sinking ship of CWG even at the last moment. This only can save our national
pride and international credibility. At the same time we also appeal to you to put
your pressure on Dr. Manmohan Singh's Government to set up a Judicial enquiry
committee to investigate Mr. Kalmadi's role in alleged corruption and even in
his past sports carrier. People like him are like a calamity on the nation. He has
inflicted a manmade disaster on entire nation. Sports can not reach glorious
stage under such leadership. Mr. Kalmadi has betrayed the very people of Pune
who have elected him thrice but more so has betrayed the nation. Arogya Sena
does not pardon the betrayers.
I hope you would act with lightening speed and handle the situation with
iron hand.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr. Abhijit Vaidya, M.D., IPT - Cardiology
Founder National Chief - Arogya Sena
arogyasena@yahoo.co.in
www.arogyasena.org
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