Innocent should not be touched: Bharti

Sports Minister Uma Bharti on Monday directed BCCI president Dr A C Muthiah to take strict action against the players named in the match-fixing report, as early as possible.

"Today I had a long meeting with Dr Muthiah, the first after I took over as minister, and asked him to take early action against the guilty players and put an end to the match-fixing controversy.

"I also told him that those who are found innocent should not be touched at all," Ms Bharti told newsmen after her hour-long meeting with Dr Muthiah and two of his colleagues from the BCCI.

Is the government reconsidering its decision not to allow the Indian cricket team to tour Pakistan?

"There is no question of reconsidering the government decision. The decision not to go ahead with the tour was taken by the external affairs ministry. There is no proposal before the government to reconsider the decision taken earlier," she clarified.

Is the Asian Cricket Council delegation meeting you on Tuesday regarding this matter?

"How can someone meet me when I am not in Delhi? I am scheduled to be in Jaipur tomorrow. So there is no way anyone can see me. I return to Delhi only in the evening. There is no pressure on me from any quarter to change the earlier decision," she said.

Ms Bharti said she has in principal agreed to hold a discussion on match-fixing in the Lok Sabha, which may come up sometime next week.

"Every day someone or the other wants to know what the government has done in this respect. We want to bring sports under concurrent list so that the Union government can legislate in matters relating to sports. I have had discussions with law minister Ajun Jaitley in this respect. There is a general feeling amongst the Members of Parliament that the Union government should make such laws so that no player has the guts to get himself involved in this disgusting malady and unpardonable crime like match-fixing," she said.

She also disclosed that she is going to hold a another meeting with officials from the the CBI, Directorate of Enforcement, Delhi police, home ministry and external affairs ministry to seek their views on the match-fixing scandal.

Is the CBI continuing its investigations in the match-fixing case?

"I have no idea about it. They have already given their report on it. But if they think that they need to investigate further, they should go ahead with it," she said.

Will you table all the documents relating to match-fixing in both the houses as promised by your predecessor?

"If needs be, the same would be done," she added.

Mail Cricket Editor