Sports Ministry not too keen on 2024 Olympic bid

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 26

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will find it hard to push for the 2024 Olympic bid after receiving an adverse report from the Sports Ministry on hosting the event. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to discuss the issue with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach on Monday, it has been learnt that the Ministry has submitted a detailed report to the PMO, mentioning prominently the corruption scandals of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
The PMO had asked the Ministry to submit a report in this regard a few days back. The PMO wanted to know whether or not hosting the Olympics would benefit India, and what would be the challenges. According to sources, the negative publicity after the 2010 Games, which maligned India’s name, figured prominently in the report, apart from the heavy financial losses incurred due to the CWG. However, the Ministry steered clear from either recommending or stalling the Olympic bid process.
Interestingly, the Ministry officials are not even sure whether Modi will actually discuss the issue of Olympic bid with the IOC president or not. The only instruction which Ministry has got is to prepare for this important visit. It is pertinent to mention here that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and Government of India are also not on the same page in this regard.
If insiders in the IOA are to be believed, no top official, including president N. Ramachandran, is keen to host any international Games after the embarrassing 2010 CWG experience. This was the reason why India didn’t bid for the 2019 Asian Games last year.
The IOA did not even bother to prepare the Olympic bid papers as the September deadline is fast approaching.  “This time there is no positive intention to bid for the 2024 Olympics,” said a senior IOA official.