On Sunday, the lifter was to address the media over the issue here at the Manipur Bhawan. While she failed to turn up initially, state Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh took the centre stage, condemning the “grave injustice” meted out to Monika and the “pre-planned motive” behind it.

After repeated requests by the media, though, Monika, who was at the CRPF camp on the outskirts of the Capital, finally relented and showed up, but seemed clueless about the status of her case. “I have been cleared by SAI,” she said, although SAI’s role was over after submitting the report.

“My event is only on August 13, so if they want I can still go (to Beijing) and participate (in the Olympics) because I am clean,” she insisted, apparently unaware that both the IOA and the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) have ruled out any chances of her competing at the Games. In fact, even her husband Santosh Kumar, who was accompanying her, confirmed that she couldn’t go now.

Fresh tests

Monika also said that she had asked for a B sample test and a fresh test but both her requests were ignored. She also kept repeating that it was a “conspiracy” to prevent her from participating in the Games.

Amid all this, the Manipur chief minister left no stone unturned to be in the spotlight. “SAI, the highest body for sports administration in the country, has done a great damage to the career of an international sportsperson,” he said at the press conference. The state’s sports and youth affairs minister, Biren Singh, was not the one to be left behind and he demanded a CBI inquiry into the whole matter so as to “save the future of Indian sports from the dirty clutches of politics”.

He also accused the IOA of using “irresponsible and condemnable language” while handling the whole issue, and questioned SAI’s “motive in leaking out the report to the media on August 5, before giving it to the IWF at 12:30 am on August 6”.

Clearly, even though Monika would not go to Beijing, her case has given “politics in sports” a whole new meaning.