Suresh Kalmadi picture in papers? Hide it from kids

Kalmadi was once revered in Kalmady. No more. Today, he is fallen from grace in the eyes of his own people.

Villagers of Kalmady, some 8 km from the bustling international educational hub at Manipal and 4 km from the world headquarters of Dwaitha Philosophy in Udupi, are so ashamed that they have started hating their son-of-the-soil—Suresh Kalmadi, the controversial chief of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee. They even hide newspapers carrying his pictures or stories about him from their children.

DNA in its September 23 edition carried how the villagers felt disgraced over controversies surrounding Kalmadi. And the anger has only persisted. “Our village has fallen from grace,” is the common feeling among the villagers over Suresh Kalmadi’s controversial management of the CWG.

“Though his (Suresh Kalmadi’s) family belonged to Kalmady, they migrated to Pune even before Suresh was born. There, Suresh rose to dizzying heights through their family business. Every time he appeared on the pages of sports magazines as the chairman of the Indian Olympic Council, I remember I used to take a clipping around the village and show it to others in the public places,” remembers Jayanna, a local shopkeeper.

“Today, Kalmadi continues to appear on front pages of newspapers and in magazines, but we either hide these from our young ones or ignore them.”

One particular grouse that Kalmady villagers hold against Kalmadi is that he did little to modernise his native village. “I heard through my colleagues who visited Suresh Kalmadi in Delhi a year ago that he had so much influence in the Central government that if he wished to do anything for Kalmady village it would have been a child’s play… but the village remains as backward as it was  50 years ago,” says Mahabala Kundar, a senior citizen of Kalmady. The villagers have also not forgotten how local youths seeking Kalmadi’s help for better future prospects were ignored.

Prajwal and Sudarshan, both local youths, had sent representations to Kalmadi for help. Prajwal, a sportsperson hoping to get trained in Bangalore, gave up after being ignored for four long years. Sudarshan wanted to continue with higher studies and his family had appealed to Kalmadi for financial help, but to no avail.