Kalmadi in London - will boost India's medal hopes !!

The greatest and most fascinating of Sports – Olympics would begin on 27^th July 2012 and will conclude on 12^th Aug 12.  London has hosted the games twice earlier in 1908 & 1948 – it is no place for honeymoon but the arena where after countless days of gruelling preparation, strategy, practice and dreams – athletes and Nations would still find surprises from aspirants coming from tiny-dots of Countries.

We do not expect too many medals for the Nation –the last time we had a Gold and two bronze and that was a great time…. Will history repeat itself ?   The much touted Tennis team has thrown many tantrums and you have the mother of a player flying as a Manager, because she is the mother of that player.  Elsewhere there are  some contenders like Vikas Gowda, the discuss thrower; Krishna Poonia – discuss; Gurmeet Singh, 20km walker; Tintu Luka, developing under the wings of legendary PT Usha; Om prakash, shotputter from Haryana; Mary Kom besides the many archers, hockey players and others. 

You can send as many players as they qualify and as many as they are allowed – the Nation can send their coaches  - anybody who would help in improving the standards of the games in India.  But the Country is debating on the news of a person who is facing graft charges and he claims that he has every right to represent the Nation.  How sad ! – everytime I write about Cricket or Sachin Tendulkar, many of my friends remark that only Cricket gets the attention in our Nation and there are so many others who have brought laurels for the Nation in various other sports; before we proceed, have you ever heard of  Dr Talimaran Ao ? – if not wait for a separate post on him. 

Within the Ministry, Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken on Sunday reiterated that sacked Commonwealth Games chief Suresh Kalmadi, who is facing graft charges, should not attend the London Olympics and asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to raise the issue with the international athletics body (IAAF) and International Olympic Committee (IOC).  Maken asserted Kalmadi must not go to London unless he was cleared of the corruption charges against him.

The Sports Minister wants the IOA to speak to IAAF and IOC to explain that Kalmadi is facing serious corruption charges.  Suresh Kalmadi was unperturbed. He stated  that he had every right to go to the Olympics as he was not proved guilty of the charges in connection with the 2010 Commonwealth Games.  Kalmadi had lashed out at Maken for objecting to his London trip when he was invited by the IAAF to attend a meeting as its council member. The tainted sports administrator went on to the extent of saying that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should ask for Maken’s resignation following his comments against him.

If you expect that his trip to London would trigger a furore, you are sadly mistaken, he has his supporters entrenched firmly.  National athletics coach Bahadur Singh went on record stating that there is needless fus and the tainted administrator’s presence would “encourage” the athletes ! – in what way and in which Sports, only he knows..  Kalmadi, an accused in the Commonwealth Games-related graft case, is out on bail after spending almost a year in Tihar Jail.

A Delhi court has given permission to sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi to travel to London for the Olympics, says an NDTV report.  The accused in the CWG graft case obtain permission after being asked to give a bond of Rs 10 lakh. The tainted MP’s counsel gave an assurance that he would be available for every hearing and would not seek adjournments. Kalmadi’s plea said that he was required to attend certain meetings and conferences because he was a member of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) Council.  IAAF General Secretary Essar Gabriel had sent him an invitation and a programme schedule for the Games. Kalmadi also placed on record the travel ticket sent to him.

The Lok Sabha MP and 10 others have been charge-sheeted by the CBI for the illegal awarding of contracts to install Timing, Scoring and Results system at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. This has allegedly caused a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer.

If you have forgotten in 2010 this scam rocked the Nation weeks before the Tournament shrouding clouds over the conduct of the International tourney itself.  The Commonwealth games scam as it is known involved large scale misappropriation of money during the preparatory phase and conduct of the 2010 Commonwealth games held in New Delhi. The total value of the scam is estimated to be 70,000 crore.  Like any other scams it involved politicians, bureaucrats and corporates acting in collusion – the other players included Sheila Dikshit, Robert Vadera.  The scam was unearthed by CAG even before the conduct of the games. Presently the scam is being probed by the CBI.  Kalmadi was accused of awarding illegal contracts to a Swiss firm for Timing-Scoring-Result system for the Games  and the Enforcement Directorate is probing the flow of funds and forex during the Queens Baton Relay held in London prior to the Commonwealth Games.  Months later, Kalmadi and Bhanot were  sacked from the Organising Commitee by the Sports ministry on Jan 2011; Shunglu panel was constituted by Prime minister Manmohan Singh to go into the irregularities in the conduct of the Games. Mr Suresh Kalmadi was arrested in Apr 2011.   He has refused to  quit his posts in Olympic Association.

What Suresh Kalmadi does in his personal capacity is nobody’s concern – but whether a tainted person can and should be part of the Indian delegation – you know too well !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.