Kalmadi hits out at Aiyar for CWG comment

Nobody could spoil the Commonwealth Games, event organiser Suresh Kalmadi said today in a sharp - and swift - response to Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar's declaration that he would be happy if the Games were a failure.

Nobody could spoil the Commonwealth Games, event organiser Suresh Kalmadi said on Tuesday in a sharp - and swift - response to Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar's declaration that he would be happy if the Games were a failure.

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"If Aiyar had been sports minister, no stadia would have been ready," Kalmadi, the chairperson of the Commonwealth Games organising committee, said at a function in New Delhi.

He stressed that nobody could spoil the Games.

"Personally, I will be unhappy if the Commonwealth Games are successful," Aiyar, a nominated Rajya Sabha member, had told reporters outside parliament earlier Tuesday.

"I am very happy with the rains, firstly because it will ensure a good agriculture for the country and secondly because it will ensure that the Commonwealth Games are spoilt," said Aiyar, a former union sports minister.