Minister Jayarajan Gets Brickbats for Questioning Sports Council Extravaganza

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Sports Minister E P Jayarajan is at the receiving end of a malicious campaign by former athlete Anju Bobby George, politicians and certain sections of the media.

While Anju, President of State Sports Council and a nominee of the Catholic lobby in the former UDF Govt led by Congress, gets all the sympathy, Minister Jayarajan, who questioned wasteful expenditure of public funds is obviously peeved at the scorn heaped on him by the media.

Malayala Manorama, a leading pro-Congress newspaper wrote a highly vitriolic editorial, based on Anju’s version of the incident,  lambasting the Sports minister.

Anju, who is famed for having finished sixth at the Olympic Games, is considered by many in Kerala as a top class athlete.

The issue is the expenses incurred by the Sports Council for the air travel of Anju Bobby George.

Anju, who runs a private sports academy in Bangalore city in Karnataka state, was appointed President of the Kerala State Sports Council by the former UDF Govt in November 2015, just 8 months before the end of its tenure. She shuttles between Karnataka and Kerala to perform her duties as  sports council president, availing flight tickets sponsored by the Sports Council. It was a special privilege accorded to her by the former UDF Govt, considering her hectic schedules in Bangalore and Kerala.

The current controversy arose when Anju alleged that E P Jayarajan, sports minister in the new government, questioned the practice of sponsoring Anju’s air travel between Bangalore and Kerala and that he spoke rudely to her.

The Malayala Manorama daily termed the minister’s act as ‘low-graded political style’. Its June 10 editorial went overboard   while launching a vicious attack on the minister.

The Minister, a popular leader from North Kerala, has however the support of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Pinarayi termed Anju’s allegation as baseless.