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.