So the Commonwealth games have been concluded. Even the most vociferous opponents of CWG would say that games have been stupendously successful, with the Honorable exception of Mani Shankar Aiyar of course.
A few days before the games began, the collective heart of the nation had begun to sink, with the not-so- honorable exception of Suresh Kalmadi. Everyone thought that the country would not be able to host the games on time or worse that the games would be cancelled. In the rumble and tumble of all this we had to have a CWG villain. It was Suresh’s destiny that he was the chosen one.
I remember the taunts that greeted Suresh each time he stood up to say something during the Opening ceremony. The intensity of all the jeers and the boos had even increased by the time it was time for the closing ceremony. For all Indians, from Kargil to Kanya Kumari, the Villian number One of CWG was Suresh Kalmadi. A small school girl even told me that the alphabets that make up the name “Suresh Kalmadi” can be reorganized to read “Sir u made lacs”
Small girl. She was thinking of lacs in the times when crores are becoming insignificant.
But this article is not about deriding Suresh Kalmadi. It is about looking at the positive side of the man who in spite of being so much ridiculed stood firm amidst all the brickbats and remained there till the CWG were finally over. I find 5 great qualities about Suresh which are worth emulating
1. Not Losing sight of the objective in severely adverse conditions: Let there be no doubt in any one’s mind that if there were no Suresh, there would have been no Delhi 2010 games. There has been much opposition to the games right from the time India made a bid for the games. Most Indians didn’t want it and many said that Commonwealth games have no significance in the world of sports. Even the one-time Sports Minister didn’t want it. Suresh had to bring games to India by working with two different regimes. He worked through the maze of bureaucrats who held sway during the Vajpayee regime and the Congress regime. I give FULL marks to Suresh for bringing the games to Delhi.
2. Taking full blame to avert witch-hunting in the interest of the games: Suresh knew that every big project which involves the prestige of the nation must have a ready-made “fall guy” in place. That the CWG village wasn’t delivered on time wasn’t Suresh’s responsibility at all. It was the responsibility of the Lt. Governor’s office. Suresh’s job was to organize the games and he and his team did it to perfection. A lesser mortal could have fought the media and turned the table on to the LG’s office for all the ills that affected the village but Suresh largely kept quite. He didn’t open the can of worms and took full blame on himself. This sense of sacrifice for the sake of Games is worth appreciating.
3. Standing by his team: Suresh Kalmadi was never the sole foot soldier of the large organization that was responsible for the organization of the game. He was rather the General of the Army called Indian Olympics Association (IOA). The Association is packed with powerful politicians like the Vice- President in the person of Vijay Kumar Malhotra who were also involved with the CWG. When Suresh Kalmadi was under attack, never did he pass the buck to his team. He stood by them and gave them encouragement to stand firm in their resolve to give an outstanding game to the world.
4. Braving the media onslaught with dignity: The amount of indignity that was heaped on Suresh when a footbridge fell near the village is unimaginable. Even the Top dog at Union Carbide wasn’t subjected to so much of outrage for the Bhopal gas tragedy. A lesser mortal would have fled the scene but Suresh stood firm (except for a brief period of two days when he went incommunicado) and handled media with aplomb. He didn’t shout back at media men who were cornering him without checking out if the failures that were being attributed to him were really in his scope of work or not. I give kudos to Suresh for that. He displayed composure and was unruffled by the wild attack. The only thing for which perhaps he wasn’t attacked was the monsoon. We thank our responsible media men for this courtesy!
5. For keeping the Olympic dream alive: There are some watershed events in the life of a nation which change the way the world perceives that nation. The hosting of Football World Cup by South Africa changed the perception of entire Africa. The much maligned “continent of darkness” delivered an excellent football tournament. This is how the developed nations viewed the event. It gave hope to the world and courage to the Africans to dream bigger. Similarly the way the Chilean government responded to save the lives of 30 something miners gave a fresh perspective of how much Chile cherishes the lives of its poor miners. It also showed how meticulously the South American country can respond to disastrous situations. Hosting of CWG will go down as a major milestone in the history of India. India hosted an outstanding event amidst clouds of doubts and visions of uncertainty. Suresh Kalmadi has an Olympic dream. He wants India to host Olympics. He is single minded in his pursuit and is focused in his mission. His strategy was to host a comparatively smaller event and go hammer and tongs at the Olympic mission. I like his strategy and would be happy if he succeeds.
In conclusion I want to make a confession. I absolutely hated Suresh Kalmadi before the CWG. I also thought he was the quintessential “Politician-Sports administrator “ who saw sports as yet another avenue to grow the political clout and may be to make money at the expense of sports. My mind is struggling to let go that image but I give Suresh a Thumbs up for his conduct which displayed his basic leadership traits- of being brave when confronted by the frenzied mob and for remaining stolid when letting out the emotions would have upset the applecart.
Sudhir Bisht is a freelance writer. Send feedback at sudhir_bisht@rediffmail.com
With their latest reound of ’snubbing’ of Kalmadi, nothing betrays the double standards and hypocracy of this pathetic Congress government more.
You are so accurate in your analysis. Suresh Kalmadi and OC had a limited mandate as far as the Games and concerned and even ASSUMING there was corruption in the OC, the larger share of the blame should definitely lie on other agencies such as MCD, CPWD, NDMC, Sports Ministry and even the Chief Minister herself. The latter were all entrusted with the most vital part, getting the venues and Village ready. The media in India has been trying to nail Kalmadi and Kalmadi only, which is a real pity because he is clearly being made a scapegoat for the shortcomings of the Congress govt. and municipality agencies.
Now that the Games have been a success, the Government (including Shiela Dikshit) are clamouring to take credit for it and publicly “snubbing” Kalmadi. It’s unfortunate that the media is pandering the these cheap tactics of the government. Kalmadi is being hanged without a trial solely because the public opinion is against him and the government wants to have nothing to do with him.
I am no expert to make any comments. It was nice to read this blog when every Tom, Dick and Harry (read also every Sita, Gita and Nita) was out there to attack Mr Kalmadi in group mails, Facebook status or blogs. Blame game, spreading negative side only is more easy than analysing what went wrong, how we can contribute etc. Appreciate ur thoughts!
I take it this way: I don’t think it would be possible for any single person to do such a scale of corruption, without money reaching up to the highest echlons of power; be it center or Delhi state govt. Secondly, it would be finding political scapegoat to put entire blame on Mr. Kalmadi and persecute him. Proper probe is needed.
Your writing made some unique and valid points. I think the Games won’t have been successful if there were not “planned” properly. And for that, credit goes to Mr. Kalmadi too.