DO NOT ALLOW
SURESH KALMADI TO HAVE THE LAST LAUGH – IT WILL HURT NATIONAL PRIDE
The audacity of Suresh Kalmadi, the shamed Chairman
of the Organizing Committee of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, New Delhi for
cocking a snook at authority by requesting the Prime Minister of the country to
sack the Sports Minister, Mr Ajay Maken; who in an upfront and just manner
expressed his exasperation at the disgraced and discredited sports
administrator, proceeding to witness the London Olympics 2012 as an invitee of
the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), is in the realm of
vacuous and reprehensible stupidity. A case of the Devil citing the scripture. The ignominious Kalmadi, who is out on bail
given to him by the courts, while having cooled his heels in Tihar Jail for well
over nine months, for alleged charges of blatant corruption and financial
impropriety in the organization and conduct of the said Commonwealth Games; has
the smirk reminiscent of another lesser sports administrator ex DGP Haryana,
Shamboo Singh Rathore, who has accosted public wrath in the Ruchika Girhotra
case of molestation and abetment to suicide: and coming on the electronic media
to pompously plead and defend his right to attend the Games as the head of the
Asian Athletics Association. The by now contemptible Kalmadi, who has
the sole distinction of institutionalising corruption in sports at the highest
level of its organization; deviously managing the accredited members of the
National Sports Federations to support and vote for his candidature as the
President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for the past 15 years or so,
by offering them undeserving freebies and sops which are influenced, commanded
or else available to him as the President IOA, and using the shenanigans of his
political mind to upstage any competition whatsoever from any quarter of sporting or else
administrative excellence – are some of his inglorious accomplishments.
Suresh, it hurts my pride as an Indian and a sports
aficionado of yesteryears, when I see your face on either the print or
electronic media, in the context of anything which has to do with sports at any
level; what to talk of International and Olympic Games. Do you not have an iota
of shame and whatever self respect that there may be left in your thick and portly
mien, to appreciate and understand the mood and feelings of the sports loving
nation which holds you in absolute contempt for your greed, arrogance,
incompetence and love for wine, women and song. The problem with you has always
been that, your conceit and arrogance has foolishly made you to believe that
you are the know all and be all of sports administration and management in the
country; which was born of your belief that like in politics, sports too is
administered by those who have nothing better to do in life and hence are
available to exploitation by becoming a lackey, sooner than later, depending on
what you were willing to offer to them from amongst the three Ws. With the
moneys that is available with and to a person of your business acumen and the
shameful political status which you have in a decrepit democracy such as ours,
where septuagenarian politicians are a rule than an exception; it is no wonder
that you disgraced the legacy of such people like Raja Bhalihdra Singh (ex
president IOA) and brought the august position to International ignominy. There
is no doubt that you will have a joyous rendezvous with many of your
International sports administrator friends and supporters, including Michael
Fennel, who entrusted you with the organization of the now infamous
Commonwealth Games, with its mismanagement and humongous embezzlement of
the Indian tax payer’s money; should the
government of India not intervene and declare you a national embarrassment –
unfit and unworthy of being present there as a recognizable and known face from
India, who hogged the limelight with the most stupendous Commonwealth Games,
being hosted just about a year and a half back.
It is my hope that Kalmadi, whose presence in
London during the Games will be extremely discomfiting for our athletes, should
he manoeuvre his disgraced self into the presence of our contingent, which he
will, and which will have many of his lackeys in it as delegates and officials:
will be seized of the hurt that he will cause to the people of the country,
whose sense of individual and national pride and dignity will be hugely
compromised and as such, do a great service by regretting the invite from the
IAAF. Should this not happen then the Prime Minister for once must show courage
and prevail upon this man to either willingly decline to go to London or else
put the provisions available to him within the scope of his government’s
authority to stall his departure to coincide with the London Games. How can a
man who is considered to be involved in corruption and loot of public money,
preen about in front of the media and scorn the people of India by talking
nineteen to the dozen on and about his not being charged or framed by the
courts of the land and hence not being guilty of any financial misdemeanour;
insult our collective intelligence under the guise of the long drawn and
politically motivated investigations and trials, which seldom convict
politicians. Mr Prime Minister, your sagacity and claim to probity and
rectitude in your personal and public life is on test, in the instant matter of
taking cognizance of the angst of the people whom you represent as its first
executive and seize the initiative to act, by not permitting the disgraced and
shamed Suresh Kalmadi to leave the country and who knows? Even present medals
to Indian athletes who achieve a podium finish. There cannot be a greater
tragedy for Indian sports and national pride. Where are we getting to as a
Nation???.
Brigadier (retd) S D Dangwal
+919410900051
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