India submits bid to host 2030 CWG: Sports ministry source
New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI): With an eye on hosting the Olympic Games in 2036, India has formally submitted its bid to conduct the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad, a top sports ministry source told PTI on Thursday, confirming a move that has been in the making for several weeks.
The last date to submit the 'Expression of Interest' to host the Games is March 31 and India's letter was sent by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) a few days ago.
"Yes, it is true, India's bid to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games has been submitted by the IOA and the state of Gujarat," the ministry source stated.
Ahmedabad, the city that has been finalised to organise the 2030 CWG should the event come to India, is also the front-runner to be the Olympic host if the 2036 bid is successful.
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), which has re-branded itself as Commonwealth Sport, will now lead an evaluation process and the final appointment of the host will be decided by the CGF General Assembly.
The decision to submit the bid comes after sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya recently asserted that the country was interested in hosting the Games.
India, which last hosted the CWG in 2010, is also aiming to host the 2036 Olympics.
The country had also expressed a desire to host all those disciplines that were axed from the 2026 CWG to ensure that its medal tally is not affected when the event is held in Glasgow. However, that proposal was rejected by CGF.
However, the CGF CEO Katie Sadleir was quite open to the idea of India hosting the 2030 CWG and had said that it would be a step in the right direction as the country pursued the ambition of playing host to the 2036 Olympics.
The CWG has been struggling to find hosts in recent years and the 2026 edition was thrown into turmoil when original host Victoria (in Australia) withdrew due to escalating costs.
Glasgow stepped in to salvage the event but announced a massively pruned schedule of just 10 sports to be held at four venues within an eight-mile radius of the city.
India has rarely held multi-sport extravaganzas. The 2010 CWG and the 1982 Asian Games are the only instances of multi-sport events being held in the country and both occasions, the host city was the national capital of Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had first talked about his government's aspiration to host the 2036 Olympics during the 2023 IOC (International Olympic Committee) session in Mumbai.
India will have to face competition from several other nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, who are positioning themselves as strong contenders to host the sporting spectacle. A decision on the 2036 Olympic host is not expected before 2026.
However, the pace of the process is expected to pick up after the IOC smoothly conducted its Annual Session in Greece to elect former Olympic champions Kirsty Coventry as its first woman President.
India has so far submitted a 'Letter of Intent' to host the Games. With that, the nation progressed from "Informal Dialogue" to the "Continuous Dialogue" stage of the host election process.
In this stage, the IOC conducts a "feasibility study" of the progress of projects associated with the Games in the potential host.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
