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A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was lambasted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and by Finance Minister P Chidambaram for its “excessive and flawed” investigations, its director Ranjit Sinha on Tuesday said there was nothing wrong in legalising betting in sports.
“If the government could make provisions for voluntary disclosure of black money, then there should be no harm in legalising betting,” Sinha said.
Responding to a query on betting in a panel discussion on ethics and integrity in sports and the role of CBI, he drew a comparison between legalising of betting and activities such as lotteries and casinos, which are legal (to some extent).
In his attempt to make a case for legalising betting, he even drew an analogy with rape. “Like some people say, if you cannot prevent rape, you might as well enjoy it,” Sinha quipped before a large gathering in the Capital.
CBI officials sprung into a damage-control exercise soon after the director’s statement. “The context was an opinion on legalising betting by Shekhar Gupta, who was moderating the session. A voice vote was taken from (chief of BCCI’s anti-corruption and security unit Ravi) Sawani and then Rahul Dravid, and the director of CBI made a point (that) if laws cannot be enforced, that does not mean that laws should not be there,” said a statement from the agency.
Apart from Dravid and Sawani, the panel also had Chris Eaton, director, International Centre for Sports Security. The audience included eminent sportspersons such as billiards player Geet Sethi, boxing champion Vijender Singh and badminton player Pullela Gopichand, among others.
Stressing the need to have stricter vigilance in these matters, Sinha asked: “Do we have the enforcement agencies to monitor such crimes?”
Sawani did not favour legalisation of betting because, he said, it attracted black money. Dravid said the law needed to be made more stringent for such offences and unless the offender sees “jail”, a ban is not going to be a big deterrent.
Dravid started his address by quoting from the Mahabharata to make his point: “Even in matters of war, conquest and death — the ultimate battles — there are rules of fair engagement. Sport is more competitive than it has ever been, and there is intense pressure to perform and succeed at every single opportunity. Insecurity is a prominent feature of any sporting career.”
