End of Suresh Kalmadi's reign reminds of a distressingly similar story

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce, Karl Marx once famously said. In the defeat of “tainted” (the pejorative adjective that was tagged along with most new reports) athletics supremo Suresh Kalmadi to Dahlan Jumaan Al-Hamad in yesterday’s presidential elections to the Asian Athletics Association (AAA), history has turned a full circle.

The Pune politician-cum-sports administrator lost 18-20 on his home turf to his powerful Qatari rival. The verdict could well have been different but for the seven votes that were declared invalid. But that’s another story! His camp had even got the Maharashtra government to fund the Asian athletics championships (and the AAA congress too) to the tune of about Rs18 crore in the hope of ensuring his success, but to no avail.

Kalmadi’s 13-year-old reign at the helm of the AAA came to an end in distressingly similar circumstances, just as it did for Mohammed ‘Bob’ Hasan who was pipped to the post by the former in 2000. Kalmadi’s long incarceration as a suspect in the Commonwealth Games 2010 scandal probably eroded his support base in the AAA and led to his defeat. While he has still not been convicted, the magnitude of the scam and the involvement of his cohorts in the Athletics Federation of India and Indian Olympic Association may stymie his sports politics career forever.     

Hasan too came a cropper in similar circumstances. The businessman was minister for trade and industry in the cabinet of genocidal dictator Suharto whose 32-year rule was notorious for the corruption of his family members and cronies. Hasan,  dubbed Indonesia’s ‘timber king’ (he also had interests in oil, media, banking, automobiles etc.,) for his humungous forest connections, could even boast when Sylvester Stallone flew down to Jakarta to open a Planet Hollywood franchise in the 1990s, ‘I told Rambo, I am the king of the jungle”.

After Suharto was ousted by massive public protests in 1998, Hasan faced corruption allegations and was convicted by the court in February 2001 for a $ 244 million loss to the government through a fraudulent forest-mapping project in Java in the early 1990s and sentenced to a long term in jail. He was however released on parole in February 2004. He was also expelled from the International Olympic Committee after his conviction, even though IOC chief Juan Antonio Samaranch had requested the Indonesian government to release him from jail to attend the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Kalmadi took advantage of his rival’s discomfiture to sweep to victory.

Interestingly, all three recent AAA head honchos have a military connection. Hasan is the foster son of Gatot Subroto, a general in the Indonesian army who was Suharto’s senior in the 1950s. Kalmadi is a former Indian Air Force pilot but is not supported by the Indian military-industrial complex. His successor is a brigadier-general and enjoys the support of the Qatari royal family in his athletic endeavours – note, Qatar’s failed bid to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships.

Kalmadi’s detractors in the Indian sports fraternity may be gloating over his defeat but the ramifications of Dalhan’s ascension are still not clear. Qatar is trying to project a liberal face with its sponsorship of culture and big-time sport (Doha Asian Games 2006, Asian Cup football 2011, sponsorship of FC Barcelona, 2022 FIFA World Cup etc.,). But it is just another ‘oil dictatorship’ like its Arabian Gulf neighbours and its treatment of migrant labour that has made it the focus of unflattering attention.

The American-educated Dalhan may prove to be a better administrator than his predecessor and can also bring big money into the sport. The new AAA boss looks ambitious and seems to have consolidated his base in the International Association of Athletic Federations where he was re-elected in as one of the four vice-presidents in August 2011, finishing behind USA’s Robert Hersh but ahead of global icons like Sebastian Coe and Sergey Bubka. Will he try to go all the way after Lamine Diack completes his fourth and final term as president?
It must be remembered Mohammed bin Hammam got the boot when he overreached himself and tried to unseat Sepp Blatter at FIFA a couple of years ago, only to face allegations of trying to bribe voters and being hounded out of both FIFA and subsequently the Asian Football Confederation where he was president. 

With Dalhan’s stars on the ascendant, he now can dictate the run of play in the continent. Kalmadi will have a mountain to climb to reestablish his fast eroding sports base both at home and in the Asian circuit.
—Mario Rodrigues is a senior football writer and
author of Batting for the Empire