Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 17: Senior BJP leader and former Minister, Bali Bhagat today launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, Deputy Chief Minister, Surinder Choudhary and Sports Minister, Satish Sharma, accusing them of betraying the youth of Jammu and politicising sports through regional bias in the Santosh Trophy football team selection.
Reacting sharply to the controversy over the complete exclusion of Jammu players from the Santosh Trophy squad, Bhagat said the incident has exposed the discriminatory mindset of the ruling dispensation. “This is not an administrative lapse; this is a deliberate injustice against Jammu’s talented youth,” he asserted.
Bali Bhagat outrightly rejected Omar Abdullah’s statement that politics should be kept out of sports, calling it “hypocritical and misleading.”
“When injustice is committed under your watch, you cannot wash your hands by sermonising about keeping politics away. The Chief Minister must answer why Jammu was completely sidelined,” he said.
Taking the attack further, Bali Bhagat said it was even more disturbing that both the Deputy Chief Minister, Surinder Choudhary and Sports Minister, Satish Sharma hail from Jammu, yet failed completely to safeguard the interests of Jammu’s sportspersons. “When leaders from Jammu themselves remain mute spectators to such blatant discrimination, it amounts to betrayal from within,” Bhagat said.
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