VK Malhotra: Indian archery's godfather and IOA's former stop-gap chief

New Delhi: Aside from being a seasoned politician, veteran BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra was also an accomplished sports administrator and will be remembered as the man who introduced and moulded archery into a top sport in the country.

Malhotra, who passed away on Tuesday here at the age of 93 due to age-related ailments, was the go to man for interim charge in the highest echelons of Indian sport during his heydays.

He was made an acting president of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) from April 26, 2011 to December 5, 2012 after Suresh Kalmadi was arrested in the 2010 Commonwealth Games corruption scandal.

Known to be a clean, and non-confrontational administrator, he guided the IOA through a difficult time when the country's sporting image was battered by the 2010 CWG scandal.

He, in fact, managed to bring a semblance of sanity to the IOA administration during the brief period under his watch. He largely stayed away from the murky politics of the faction-ridden body.

A soft spoken and genial person, Malhotra loved interacting with the media at his official residence in Delhi. His interim tenure was followed by an election which eventually led to the suspension of the IOA by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The election of Abhay Singh Chautala as president and Lalit Bhanot as secretary general led to a ban on the IOA on December 4, 2012, only to be revoked by the IOC on February 11, 2014. Malhotra eventually became a life president of the IOA.

He was also the Chef-de-Mission of the Indian contingent during the Tehran Asian Games in 1974.

Indian archery was, however, nurtured by Malhotra, and he was the national federation's president for more than 40 years -- from 1973 to 2015.

Delhi BJP president Virender Sachdeva and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju had served as AAI executive committee members under him.

Formed in 1973, a year after the sport was chosen to become an Olympic discipline in the 1972 Munich Games, it was under Archery Association of India (AAI) that archery took roots in India through the perseverant efforts of Malhotra, who was also the Chief Executive Councillor of Delhi at that time.

The idea germinated during Malhotra's stint with the Indian contingent in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

According to old-timers who have been associated with him, Malhotra saw the absence of Indian archers in Munich and on his return he established the Archery Association of India.

Under his efforts as founding president of AAI, the first Senior National Archery Championship was held in Delhi in April, 1973, which was quite a spectacle with about 50 men and women participating with bows and arrows made of bamboo.

Malhotra and then AAI Secretary General Gopesh Mehra introduced archery in Asia, and Asian Archery Federation (now known as World Archery Asia) was formed in Bangkok during the Asian Games in 1978.

Malhotra was elected as the first president and PN Mukherjee as the first Secretary General of that body. India organised the maiden Asian meet in then Calcutta in 1980. It was Malhotra who took the initiative to conduct the first Commonwealth Archery Championship in New Delhi in 1995.

Commonwealth Archery Federation was formed during the Commonwealth Championship and Malhotra was elected as its president. He played a major role in including archery in the 2010 Commonwealth Games roster.

Malhotra's last election as AAI president in 2012, when he was 80, was in defiance of the age and tenure restriction clause under the government's Sports Code. As a result, the government de-recognised AAI.

Archers have grown exponentially over the years winning medals at the Asian, Commonwealth and World Championship levels even though an Olympic medal is still awaited.

He quit in 2015, and was made chairman of the All Indian Council of Sports (AICS), an advisory body to the Sports Ministry that also ensured a minister of state rank for the heavyweight leader.