Bihar became the laughing stock of the nation when the topper of Bihar Board Arts Stream, Ruby Rai found it exceedingly difficult to pronounce Political Science. She went ahead and declared Political Science a subject of ‘cooking’, she wasn’t wrong metaphorically, for Politics is all about cooking but looking at the answer from a strict academic angle, it was a disaster. The topper fiasco unearthed a scam orchestrated masterfully by politicians, bureaucrats, academicians and strongmen. And now we have another scam, this time in the sporting discipline. Let us call it, the Bihar Khel Samman Scam.
What is the Bihar Khel Samman Scam?
The five-day 16th Senior National Para Athletic Championship took place at Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula, Haryana with participants from over 20 states, Bihar being one of them. Last week, Government of Bihar felicitated 359 athletes from the state.
In the same event, it conferred its prestigious Bihar Khel Samman award upon six differently abled athletes, who participated and won in the 16th Senior National Para Athletic Championship. Athletes who win a medal at a national or an international event are generally honoured with this award. Bihar Khel Samman Awardees also get a cash prize of INR 5,00,000.
This was the first time when Bihar Government updated the details on the Bihar State Sports Authority website. And as soon as the names went live, it was discovered that none of the six athletes had won a single medal in the tournament; in fact many didn’t even participate.
So like the topper scam, Bihar Government presented the award and the cash remuneration to ‘fake’ and undeserving people (fake medalists in this case) thereby denying the real ones of what they rightfully deserved.
Now why would anyone go to the extent of producing ‘fake’ athletes?
Apart from the recognition and cash prize, the award also concretes the path for a ‘sarkari naukri’, a coveted word for most Biharis. Khel Samman Awardees over the years have been awarded with a well-paying government job and this makes the award a crucial one and a perfect hunting ground for scamsters.
It is alleged that the organizers of the Felicitation ceremony were aware of the fraudulence but they went ahead anyway. As per Arvind Pandey, Director, Bihar State Sports Authority “yes I got to know about this illegality on the day of the event itself, but since it was a big event we didn’t do anything on that day”.
What led to the leak?
Government of Bihar has led down a procedure for selecting the Bihar Khel Samman awardees. Government accepts applications from athletes, three months prior to the event. Applicants are supposed to highlight their achievements in their applications. Coaches, Selectors and Sports officials validate the candidate applications and present their finding to the authority. Final list of athletes is then prepared and they are honoured with the award in a felicitation ceremony.
The procedures were evidently disregarded by the officials and the sports authority. And this was not a casual mistake but a carefully constructed scam. There must have been huge bribes involved.
It will be interesting to know how many Khel Samman Awardees over the years have gotten a Government Job and how many of them have actually won a medal at any sporting event?
What was the amount of bribes involved?
Which officials in the authority accepted bribes?
Were any ministers involved?
There are a lot of questions.
Since the names were updated on the Sports Authority website this time, the scam came to public notice or else it would have remained under the covers unheeded and overlooked.
In the entire episode, one got to feel for the real winners who were denied of their award, their cash remuneration and a decent chance at getting a government job. It must have been heart-breaking for them to see someone else walking away with their trophy, money, and job.
Bihar Government must conduct an extensive enquiry to expose the fake awardees and the officials who helped them cheat the system.
Report based on this story
