KALMADI SHOWN THE DOOR FOR
GOOD
While the supposed final nail in the coffin of the
credentials of Mr Suresh Kalmadi, as a sports aficionado and administrator has
been put, with his loss in the elections held to select the President of the
Amateur Athletics Association of Asia (AAA); it is a wonder when the
investigating and judicial authorities in the country will charge and prosecute
him for his intent to cheat and criminally profit from contracts, given to
suppliers during the 2010 Commonwealth Games. It is said of the law that it
moves like an ass, but the prolonged delay in framing a charge sheet to proceed
against Kalmadi for his acts of commission and omission is a tad too long and
inexplicable. The tragedy of the country is its recalcitrance and dithering to
act against venal and criminally culpable politicians, goons who help make the
fortunes of politicians, celebrities and those corporate houses, which curry
favour with the league of scoundrels.
The memory of Kalmadi, shown on television and
threatening the channel with a defamation suit in the courts of the Capital,
seems so ironical now, with his stature and power cut to size by his political
party and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which he headed for 15 years.
His, probably last attempt to resurrect himself as a sports administrator, by
seeking a fourth tenure as President of the AAA did not work out for him. Even
though he has the reputation of being able to pull the rabbit out of the hat,
his defeat must have surprised quite a many of those whom he had cultivated by
dispensing favours and offering freebies, while he was in power and wielded
authority. One wonders if providence intervened in the process of these
elections, wherein 7 votes were declared invalid in a close margin of 20 - 18, which
Brigadier Hamad won. The result of these elections was a great relief for the
sportspersons of India, who were saved their dignity and pride. Kalmadi, would
no more haunt and cast his pompous shadow over the firmament of athletics,
which had at one time propelled him to his grip over the coveted chair of
President IOA.
The fall of Kalmadi from grace was as meteoric as was his
rise, when he rose from the ranks of the Youth Congress into mainstream
politics and jettisoned his association with his mentor and Maratha strongman
Sharad Pawar, to create his own coterie and political following. His tenure as
a parliamentarian brought him into the corridors of power in Delhi and like
some others of his ilk, was sucked into the power game of sports
administration. His first port of entry was the Indian Amateur Athletics
Association (IAAF), from where he leap frogged into the domain of the IOA and
held sway till he was put into the Tihar Jail, in the wake of alleged
corruption charges slapped against him by the country’s top investigating
agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Kalmaid’s political fortunes were on the rise and he even
held the portfolio of a Railway Minister in Rajeev Gandhi’s government. He had
very assiduously cultivated his parliamentary constituency, Pune and continues
to represent it in the Lok Sabha. The Congress – NCP alliance government, which
is presently in Maharashtra, has in it Kalmadi loyalists from Pune. Therefore,
quite understandably, there was a mass demonstration and rallies were taken out
in support of Kalmadi, when he was released on bail from the Tihar Jail. To his
following, this man could do no wrong and had given to Pune its modern look and
infrastructure. One wonders, what will be the outcome, when he contests the
general elections, which are just around the corner in 2014. Given the standing
of the pathetic opposition to the Congress Party’s most likely candidate, which
most probably will be Kalmadi, it is unlikely that he could be defeated and
will yet again be elected to the Lok Sabha. It seems, corruption continues to
remain a non issue with the Indian electorate, which discounts this failing in our
polity as a minor lapse.
However, irrespective of what happens in the battle of
the ballot, as and when it takes place: the Indian sporting fraternity is happy
and pleased with the outcome of the result to the post of the President AAA. It
now seems that all routes for Kalmadi’s return into sports administration have
been effectively blocked. To me personally, this gives great joy because while
I was in service in the Army Sports Control Board (ASCB), he handed out very
shoddy treatment to those who stood up to his devious machinations and
realpolitik in Indian sports and indulged those who were willing to suck up to
his fiat, even when it was detrimental to the interests of the parent
organization they served in and sports. Kalmadi, had a knack of cultivating
those who were weak of spine and convictions and sucked up to him for
egotistical reasons. He used his protocol as a parliamentarian to exploit the
resources of the Army and the Services and gave scant respect to the
organizational hierarchy. Of course part of the blame rests with those who were
happy to ride his bandwagon, but that was how he practiced his expediency and
politics in sports management and administration.
It is a welcome
news for the country, that the heavyweight which Kalmadi had become in the
firmament of Indian Sports, has finally been shown the door.
Brigadier S D Dangwal
5339, W 64th Street
Ridgeview Drive
Edina
Minneapolis
Minneasota,
US of A
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