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| Aditi Phadnis: Don't fear, I'm here |
| Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi Sep 19, 2009, 00:10 IST |
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Kalmadi’s convinced infrastructure for the Games will be ready in time
If you’re worried like millions of other Indians that India won’t be able to get the necessary infrastructure ready in time for the Commonwealth Games, that the high jump event might have to be held in the open on the sand by the banks of the Yamuna and that traffic jams (because the roads won’t be ready) will not permit the shooting teams to reach the shooting ranges in time, thus possibly even leading to a scrapping of the event (oh! the shame of it!), don’t be.
Why ?
It is a one-sentence mantra: ‘‘Do Not Fear, Suresh Kalmadi is Here”.
“I have no time or inclination for small events. Anything big and massive immediately calls for my attention. I have always been a natural organiser, so all these roles come easily to me. The pressure never reaches boiling point because I have delegated authority to competent persons. So starting new projects and sustaining them has never been an issue,” says Suresh Kalmadi, on Facebook.
Mike Fenell, the chief of the Commonwealth Games Federation has his doubts. He voiced them in a letter that has raised toe-curlingly embarassing questions about India’s ability to hold the Commonwealth Games.
The English have a children’s saying: ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but hard words cannot hurt me’. Suresh Kalmadi has lived this saying all his life.
Sticks and stones have been coming his way regularly since 1974 when he gave up his career in the Indian Air Force and acquired an interest in the Poona Coffee House which he turned around, making it one of the most important restaurants in Pune, his hometown which has been electing him for 22 years. This was in April 1974.
Three months later, in July 1974, he acquired a dealership of Hindustan Petroleum for all its products. Eleven years later, he incorporated Sai Service Station Ltd, which is today his flagship company, and established a dealership of Maruti Udyog. By 1986, he had also added the dealership of Bajaj Auto Ltd. Today Sai Service Ltd. is the biggest dealership of Maruti in India.
The story of his career in sports management is as dizzying. In 1980, as the President of the Maharashtra Athletics Association, Kalmadi undertook the selection trials for the marathon team to represent the country at the Moscow Olympics. The National Games were held in Pune in 1993-94. Then, a stadium was built in two years and infrastructure in Pune upgraded because Sharad Pawar was chief minister and Kalmadi was his closest lieutenant at the time. Kalmadi had the entire machinery of the state at his command.
By 2004, Kalmadi had meshed business and sport so closely that he had a finger in every non-cricket, non-tennis sports pie in India. The first Standard Chartered Mumbai International Marathon which was held in 2004 netted sponsorship money which made it the richest marathon in Asia. “I want to see that 30 corporate houses back 30 different sports so that every sport gets proper recognition,” Kalmadi said.
Clearly not a posterboy for austerity.
But who needs an austerity certificate when you have big business and politics on your side ? When Rajiv Gandhi died and Sharad Pawar threw his hat in the ring for Prime Minister, it was Kalmadi who did all his lobbying. He was then a Rajya Sabha MP.
But the rise of Pawar’s nephew Ajit saw Kalmadi drift away from Pawar. Differences came out in the open in 1994-95 over the election of the Mayor of Pune. Ajit Pawar set up a rival to Kalmadi’s supporter. So while the Pawar-Kalmadi relationship continued to be cordial, Ajit Pawar went on whittling away at it.
Sharad Pawar had other problems in Pune. The biggest one was V N Gadgil, a socialist and veteran spokesman of the Congress, detested and feared by Pawar. So Pawar built up Kalmadi against Gadgil. But in 1998, when Sitaram Kesri became Congress President, Kalmadi left the Congress. He lost the Lok Sabha elections, but was back in the Rajya Sabha as an independent, with the help of a large number of independents in the Maharashtra Assembly and some support from the BJP-Shiv Sena. In 1999, Pawar formed the Nationalist Congress Party. Kalmadi was not given a ticket. He rejoined the Congress.
Few know that Rahul Bajaj is a close personal friend, not only of Sharad Pawar, but also of Suresh Kalmadi. So when the 2004 elections came round, Bajaj brokered a truce between his two friends. The two parties — the NCP and the Congress — had struck an electoral alliance. So did the two men. But Ajit Pawar was still around. In 2009, Kalmadi openly ‘thanked’ Ajit Pawar for ensuring his victory in the Pune Lok Sabha seat (in Pune, till last month, NCP and BJP-Shiv Sena had an electoral alliance at the level of local bodies. Ajit Pawar campaigned for the BJP candidate in the general election). But he won by a margin of just about 25,000 votes.
The short point of the long story is: He might be anything, but Suresh Kalmadi is not short of resourcefulness. This is what will come to his aid in October 2010.
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