BJP questions HIF spending huge money on Bollywood stars in WC Hockey inauguration
Bhubaneswar, November 30:
The Odisha unit of BJP today lambasted the Hockey India Federation (HIF) and Naveen Patnaik government for spending crores of rupees on entertainment in the name of hosting Men’s World Cup Hockey.
Addressing the newsmen here, party spokesperson Lekhashri Samantaray questioned the advance payment of Rs 1.89 crore to Bollywood star Salman Khan for his appearance during the inaugural function of the World cup hockey at Cuttack.
She alleged, Mr Khan was paid huge money to take a selfie with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to say some good things in his favour to boost the Chief Minister’s dying image.
This apart Bollywood actor Saharukh Khan and actress Madhuri Dixit and renowned singer A R Rahman who also joined the inaugural function at Bhubaneswar were paid huge amount of money.
The BJP leader strongly dismissed the BJD’s clarification that the government has not paid a single rupee and the entire expenses was borne by the Hockey India.
She also questioned the huge payment by Hockey India towards entertainment as claimed by the ruling BJD when HIF is unable to pay even the match fees to its players.
The BJP demanded the Odisha government and the Hockey India to disclose the names of the sponsors for the Men’s World Cup Hockey and the total amount they received for organizing the Odisha Men’s Hockey World Cup.
The BJP spokesperson had a dig at the BJD government led by Naveen Patnaik for squandering crores of rupees for self promotion and to boost his image while lakhs of people affected by the Titili Cyclonic storm are languishing without home and food even 45 days after the cyclone hit the state.
Ignoring the plight of the cyclone Titili affected people, the Odisha government, she said was spending crores of rupees on the cultural programmes in the name of promoting hockey.
The BJP leader further said, it is a very rare in any part of the world to organize two inaugural functions for a single event.
Two mega inaugural functions one at Bhubaneswar and the other at Cuttack were organized for the Men’s World Cup Hockey.
The BJP leader said, if the expenses for the two inaugural functions were paid by the Hockey India then why not a single official of the Hockey India was not present in the Inaugural function at Cuttack.
In Bhubaneswar, except Hockey India President no other officials were present in the inaugural function.
She also said that since sponsorship is not a secret donation why the names of the sponsors did not find a place in its publicity materials.
Ms Samantaray said that except the postors of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, not a single official of Hockey India figured in numerous posters put across the city and outside for promoting the event.
She alleged that there was a secret understanding between Chief Minister and the FIH President Narendra Batra to boost the image of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Tagging screen shots of the cheque paid to the Bollywood actor Salman Khan, Lekhashree tweeted”This is fees our best administrator shameless @Naveen Odisha has paid Salman Khan for selfie and promotion of his self image.”The BJD described the allegation of BJP as false and baseless and demanded apology from her for insulting the state, the Chief Minister and Biju Babu through her statement.