How Modi Became RCA Top Dog
- Two sets of constitution bylaws presented before the Registrar of Cooperative Societies within a week in Jan-Feb ’05. Second set "tentatively accepted for consideration". The RCA has operated under these rules since then.
- On Jan 27, ’09, RCA working committee advises registrar that the first set of constitution bylaws be approved. The next day it is approved by the registrar.
- Modi’s lawyers call it unconstitutional, say most voting members have written to him saying they haven’t approved any amended constitution.
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Lalit Modi has been called ruthless before, and he rather enjoys the epithet. "Otherwise, we wouldn’t get where we are," he said in his typical brash manner last year. And why wouldn’t it show on him, for the man’s role in Indian cricket would be the dream of any sports administrator—creator of the IPL, the youngest vice-president of the Indian cricket board (BCCI) and counted among the most influential people in sports today.
But there are clouds on the horizon, clouds which had been held at bay by a friendly government in Rajasthan. With that dispensation voted out, and his term as president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) due to end soon, Modi is in a spot of bother. The unthinkable has happened: the very men who were dancing to his tune are now rebels. The result flows directly from that imperious attitude with which the man twists the rules, just like when he took over the Amer havelis.
Leg Slip Position
Best in the world? The Rajasthan Cricket Assn Academy grounds
The rebels’ weapon of choice has been the Rajasthan Sports Act (RSA) which, funnily enough, Modi himself had used to end the reign of the Rungta family as the state’s cricket administrators and catapult himself to power. The legality of the RSA has been challenged in the Supreme Court; rival factions are claiming legitimacy and are bent on stripping each other of power. The renegade RCA secretary, Subhash Joshi, has declared that elections will be held on February 22. Modi has formed an arbitration panel to decide, among other things, whether elections can be held now. And then there’s this most curious ‘Case of the Changing Constitutions’. The fight has gotten dirtier than ever before.
"No one can dispute that Modi has done a great deal of good for the sport in Rajasthan, but he’s also made too many enemies," a Modi supporter told Outlook. "There’s too much that was done under him which shouldn’t have been done, too much that went beyond the bounds of legality."
Forged, Sealed
No full names please: The proxy which got Lalit Modi into the RCA. The sign on the left is of Lalit Kumar of Nagaur, the other one is of Modi
Modi’s chief rival, Kishore Rungta, alleges that his very entry into the RCA was through a dishonest move. "Modi got into the RCA impersonating someone called Lalit Kumar of Nagaur," a Rungta faction source says. Modi, in fact, even admitted as much in an interview in 2006, "I didn’t give my full name because people would have wanted to cut off my entry." It worked, the ruse coming to light only just before the RCA elections. "But by then, the BJP government was in power. It put its weight behind him.... The signatures of Lalit Kumar and Lalit Kumar Modi in the RCA records are completely different. This amounts to fraud and his presence in the RCA is untenable," says a source.
The Rungta group has also raked up Modi’s conviction on drug possession and kidnapping as a student of Duke University in North Carolina in 1983. They say that RCA rules bar anyone convicted on a criminal offence or guilty of moral turpitude from holding an official post. The Rajasthan Sports Act is another battleground. A few months after the Vasundhararaje government took over, the act was introduced, allegedly at Modi’s behest. The ostensible aim was to regulate sporting bodies, but with the hidden aim of ousting the Rungtas from the RCA, they claim. "Earlier, representatives from the districts and individual members of the RCA voted in the elections," a senior sports reporter in the state says. "The new law restricted the right to only representatives of the 32 districts."
This led to the defeat of the Rungtas after, they claim, the state machinery coerced representatives of district associations to vote for Modi. Individual voters were allowed to vote but the court decreed their votes wouldn’t count. Their voting pattern has remained unknown, sealed due to a court decree. Modi was declared the winner, and his remarkable rise began.
Rules apart, Modi’s supporters say he proved to be a boon for Rajasthan cricket. "What the Rungtas did not do for cricket in 38 years, Modi did in just four years," says one. "The Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur is world-class. The RCA has a proper office now. The training facilities are at par with the best in the world...even the Aussie cricket team opted to train here before the Test series late last year. The services of eminent coaches including Greg Chappell were obtained. The average cricketer in the city is happy." Not true, say Modi’s rivals, alleging that the academy facilities are used more as a five-star hotel and restaurant.
Mumbai lawyer Mehmood M. Abdi, Modi’s solicitor and president of the Sriganganagar District Cricket Association in the state, trashes the allegations against Modi. "All sporting bodies fall under the purview of the Rajasthan Sports Act, so why is there a controversy only in cricket?" he asks. "The Rungtas don’t want the votes of individual members to be abolished because most of them are from their own family." Rungta laughs off this allegation.
On the North Carolina issue, Abdi says the issue was raised in a PIL in the Bombay HC and was dismissed. "In any case, it’s irrelevant now. Even the Indian Constitution provides that a person convicted of a crime can fight (parliamentary) elections six years after the date of the conviction," he says.
Modi’s detractors aren’t to be left behind, they hold up the fact of his being an official with two state cricket bodies as a case of conflict of interest. "He’s president of the RCA and vice-president of the Punjab Cricket Association," a BCCI source says. "Whose interests is he looking after?" Some say Modi is keeping his position with the PCA as cover for his role in the BCCI in case he’s ousted from the RCA.
The issue of the constitution bylaws is more murky. The Rungtas and Subhash Joshi say in January ’05, in the run-up to elections, the RCA ad-hoc committee sent a new constitution to the registrar of companies for approval; in less than a week, another constitution was presented to the registrar, creating a piquant situation. The second constitution vested absolute powers in the president. Abdi insists there was no second constitution but Justice Arjun Deo Singh, appointed by the SC to oversee the elections then, recorded that "two different sets of bylaws were received by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies". He also observed that the second set was "tentatively accepted for consideration", pending a final decision.
Joshi says the second set of bylaws grants more powers to the president than any democratic norm can allow. "So, we (he and the working committee) intimated the registrar of societies that the first set of constitution bylaws should be approved as the RCA rules," Joshi told Outlook. "On January 28, 2009, the registrar ratified the change."
A day later, Joshi was dismissed by Modi from the RCA on the charge of working for the Rungta group. "He doesn’t have the power to do that. And how can he create an arbitration panel himself?" Joshi asks. "The rules say that one member each would be nominated by the president, the secretary and the executive committee." All the three members of the arbitration panel now have been appointed by Modi.
It’s clear the two are operating by the rules they themselves deem correct. Both parties swear they want peace, that they want to abide by the RCA’s laws which advise "conciliation", but were provoked into taking extreme action by the other. No surprise, both insist the action of the other was unconstitutional. Ask Joshi why he’s suddenly started finding fault in Modi and he says, "In the past, I’ve raised several issues...differed with him. It’s all in the records. It’s nothing personal, it’s a fight of principles."
Even as Modi got busy in Goa for the IPL player auctions, meetings went on in Jaipur. Insiders say most district representatives are, alas, susceptible to greed and that many of them will soon be seen with Modi in Goa. They feel Modi will prevail unless the Gehlot government "intervenes". Even then, some feel the IPL czar is unlikely to bite the dust. From the spot he’s in now, if he manages to pull it off it would be a truly remarkable feat, another impossibility made possible by the endlessly resourceful Modi.
