Khemka, Yogeshwar Dutt in twitter spat over income cut for players

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 9

Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who is in the eye of storm after his Sports and Youth Welfare Department notification on cuts in earnings by sportspersons, was on Saturday engaged in a heated exchange of tweets with Olympian-wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt.

Dutt, who is also a DSP in Haryana Police, started the debate with a tweet from his twitter handle @DuttYogi. "Aise afsar se Ram bachaye, jab se khel vibhaag mein aaye hain tab se bina sar-pair ke Tughlaki farmaan jaari kiye ja rahein hain. Haryana ke khel vikaas mein aapka yogdaan shoonya ha kintu ye daawa hai mera iske patan mein aap shat pratishat safal ho rahien hain. (God save from such an officer. Ever since he has joined the sports department he has been issuing diktats like Tughlak. Your contribution to sports development in the state is nil but I am sure that you are succeeding 100 per cent in destroying it)," Dutt tweeted.

Khemka replied to Dutt's tweet in Hindi which inter alia means that "it must be in the knowledge of the Olympian wrestler that government employees were banned from doing commercial endorsements and playing in professional events". He advised Dutt to say what he wants to speak, but he should not forget the dignity of people.

Dutt fired another tweet in Hindi which translated to English meant that he "does not know that whenever there are pro-leagues, the players who are in camps participate in such events. How many times will they seek approval for leave? I have the experience that these Sahibs try to find out newer methods to make those people run behind them who stop saluting them".

In response, Khemka told Dutt "good manners and decorum was needed both in sports as well as in the police".

The IAS officer further told Dutt that playing in professional events and doing endorsement of commercial products was barred for government employees before the issuance of the present notification. Telling the Olympian that his anger and badmouthing were both uncalled for, Khemka asked him why this sudden aggressive reaction after 48 hours was.

"I got to know about the notification today only through media reports. Such a big change and no one from the sportspersons consulted even. Expressing ones views with resolve doesn't amount to anger," Dutt replied to Khemka's tweet.