A SAGA OF ‘OLYMPIAN’ RISE AND FALL

My first impression of SURESH KALMADI was when, as President of the Indian Youth Congress (Socialist), he led a protest demonstration of no more than a dozen party workers. He led, also held the party banner, and there were more placards than the hands needed to hold them high.

The motley group had marched from 7, Jantar Mantar, the party headquarters, to the Janpath roundabout. It swelled only when two carloads of top leaders, including President Devaraj Urs and Sardar Swaran Singh, came to address them. A forgettable event for a politician.

For Squadron Leader Kalmadi, who had just retired from the Indian Air Force (IAF) after flying during the 1971 conflict, shedding his uniform and switching to Khadi must have required a measure of dedication and commitment to his second career as a politician. From a well-off business family, he could have opted for “suite-boot” and boardroom.

He was among the few men who moved from military to politics, like Jaswant Singh, a cavalry officer, and another pilot, Rajeshwar Nath, who renamed himself as Pilot. That was a different era.

Like the two others, Kalmadi’s political career as a Member of both Houses of Parliament and as a minister was eventful. But more eventful was his career as a sports administrator, which saw “Olympian highs” and “Commonwealth Games lows”. He was President of the Indian Olympic Association for many years and brought the Commonwealth Games to India.

Much politics went into delaying the latter event by his own party in power. With much justification, the CWG management became a public eyesore. The Opposition of the day was into it, and so were media houses, who felt sore that Kalmadi had favoured their rivals. And the governments of the day, Union and in Delhi, behaved like ‘baraatis’ buying expensive clothes and jewellery for themselves. Delhi invested hugely in replacing outdated infrastructure. And that added to the CWG costs.

The last bit was played by the prolonged monsoon, well into Delhi’s mid-October. It did not allow the last-minute construction work to dry and firm. Althouth they went off well, the Games became a butt of joke an ridicule, and the buck stopped at Kalmadi’s door.

Wikipedia records say Kalmadi was “alleged to have been involved in corrupt practices in relation to the 2010 Commonwealth Games during his tenure as president of the Indian Olympic Association and chairman of the Commonwealth Games 2010. He was charged with conspiracy, forgery, and misconduct under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and later arrested for the same in April 2014, but had not yet faced trial. In December 2016, the IOA named Suresh Kalmadi as its lifetime patron. However, he refused to accept the post until he was able to clear his name.”

The name was never ‘cleared’, and nothing came out, even after the change in political dispensation. Outside a court where he was being tried, under police protection, Kalmadi was thrashed.

His Indian National Congress Party membership was suspended after being arrested and charged with corruption, old records say. Even murder charges and court convictions do not attract the ire of political bosses these days. Good or otherwise, those times were different.