Kalmadi may hang around even after defeat
It's not just Suresh Kalmadi who feels “relieved” that he lost the election to the Asian Athletics Association presidentship; the people of the country too are relieved that he has been ousted. The scam-tainted sports administrator and Congress Member of Parliament has brazenly refused to fade in the background after being charged and jailed over irregularities in the Commonwealth Games lootfest. He was then president of the Indian Olympic Association and headed the last CWG held in Delhi. He continued to make appearances as an administrator at sports events such as the National Games, despite being virtually booted out of the IOA. One of his confidants and an accused in the CWG scam is said to have participated in an official meeting well after being tainted. But now that Kalmadi's last fort, which he had held on to for 13 long years, has fallen, it is possible that he will recede from the limelight, at least for now. That will be the fond hope of millions of Indians who are disgusted by the notoriety that the CWG scandal has fetched the country. When, if at all, he will be brought to book for the wrongs that he has allegedly committed — he has naturally claimed complete innocence — remains to be seen. The matter is in the courts, and the wheels of justice move slowly. Meanwhile, Kalmadi will hope that the country shall over time forget the issue and he will find a way to bounce back into reckoning with some help from friends that he has made across party lines over the decades. What also keeps him pumped up is the belief — and admittedly it is shared by quite a few sportspersons — that he will find favour on the strength of the ‘good work' that he had done as the country's principal sports administrator for many years in promoting sports, especially athletics. Well-know sports icons like former runner Anju Bobby George have praised his contribution.
Nobody is denying that during his long tenure as the nation's leading sports manager, Kalmadi has contributed to the growth of athletics in many ways. But those achievements have got washed away by the CWG taint. No amount of past creditable performance can override the charge of being a scamster. There are many sports personalities who despise him for the bad name which he has brought to Indian sports. International golfer Jeev Milkha Singh, for instance, has nothing but contempt for him. The golfer's iconic father and former Olympian, Milkha Singh, will not have a very different opinion. To make matters worse, Kalmadi appears to have fallen from grace even in his own party, with the Congress at least overtly unwilling to back the tainted politician-administrator in the months preceding the general election. That doesn’t mean he will not be given a ticket or resurrected post-poll. Given the situation now, Kalmadi's loss in the Asian Athletics Association contest is one exceptional moment when an Indian's defeat will be mourned by few in the country.