The Lalit Modi Affair : Justice or cover up?

After the last ball of the IPL was bowled and fate of IPL 3 sealed, Modi was clean bowled. When at the presentation ceremony Mr. Modi was busy garnering public sympathy and banking on the emotions of the crowd, BCCI announced a decision that in all probability might have been taken days ago. Goodbye Mr. Modi, you have been suspended from the office of Chairman and Comissioner of the IPL. What you have just made is also your farewell speech. Modi’s golden run comes to an end. However this raised some very fundamental questions about IPL in my mind.

1. Was IPL all in all a separate concern or was it a sister concern of BCCI? Was BCCI the main governing body and the IPL committee the operational body? Was any such structure defined? Documented? Whose moral responsibility was it ?

2. If BCCI was the governing body then why didn’t it lay down a strict constitution/ rule book for IPL?

3. There was an IPL committee right? Then why was Modi given so much authority and power that it started looking like a one-man show. Like one man running a huge corporation? Why wasn’t the authority decentralized?

4. Why was there a hidden understanding that the names of the stake owners and their stake in each company won’t be revealed? Why couldn’t the stake be revealed?

5. Why couldn’t the profits be chalked up, taxed and made public for everyone to see?

6. What was the BCCI/ IPL committee trying to hide? Or rather the right question would be who was it trying to protect?

7. IPL is not a social cause. It is a business. Then why was the stamp duty for it waived? A stamp duty of 2000 crore! Money that belonged to the people of this country…Money that could have been used for the progress of the country. Add to that the entertainment tax that was waived…..Another 5 crores! Why?

8. Why has the income tax department started investigation into the assets of the team so late? What was it doing for three long years?

9. Is IPL being used as an instrument to make black money legitimate?

10. Are we exploiting the passion that the masses have for cricket to fatten the pockets of industrialists, film stars, politicians all alike?

11. Lalit Modi deserves a punishment….but he is being punished for what? Is it for bringing down a Congress minister?

12. Or is it for exposing the ugly behind the scenes reality of IPL? Is he merely being made a scapegoat to protect some very big and influential names?

13. What more lurks behind the IPL?

Is it justice?

Or is it just a cover up?

Sorry Mr. Modi you have been caught in the trap you laid for someone else!
But thank you, Mr. Modi you have brought forth all the dark secrets of the IPL, So what if it was to hide your own secrets! And so what if it was 3 years too late!

Enjoy your retirement Mr. Modi!