Sports Minister Vijay Goel Goes On Selfie Spree In Rio, Organisers Threaten To Cancel His Accreditation
The 'over enthusiasm' of sports minister Vijay Goel, who is currently in Rio with the Indian Olympic contingent, is not going down well with the organisers of the event.
They have threatened to cancel the minister's accreditation to the venues. This, after they felt the minister's posse reportedly were "aggressive and rude" with the organising staff on multiple occasions.
"We have had multiple reports of your minister for sports trying to enter accredited areas at venues with unaccredited individuals. When the staff try to explain that this is not allowed, they report that the people with the minister have become aggressive and rude and sometimes push past our staff," Sarah Peterson, the continental manager said in a letter to Indian Chef-de-Mission Rakesh Gupta.
In the past four days, the minister was seen clicking photos with gymnast Dipa Karmakar, the hockey team and boxer Vikas Krishnan who was coming out the ring exhausted after winning his bout.
However, Indian officials dismissed the issue as being disproportionately blown up saying that on one instance it was inadvertent, and on another occasion he had taken a special pass.
Even the minister tweeted saying that it was the result of a misunderstanding, and he was following the protocol.
To my knowledge, we have been following all rules & regulations. We are committed to the spirit of Olympics & back our Indian players. (1/2)
¡ª Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) August 11, 2016
There seems to be some misunderstanding as we have followed all protocols as advised by the organizers. ( 2/2 )
¡ª Vijay Goel (@VijayGoelBJP) August 11, 2016
Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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