Pub­lished in April 2008, this is what hap­pened when KPS Gill was sacked as the chief of the In­dian Hockey Fed­er­a­tion. Per­haps for the first time ever in his life, he talked about “democ­racy and fair play.” -the pot call­ing the ket­tle black. Since In­dia as such did not have any use of him, he was re­moved with­out a mur­mur.

NEW DELHI: Strange how In­dia calls a ha­bit­ual loser it’s su­per-cop. KPS Gill even shamed those who propped him up with un­earned ep­i­thets for more than two decades now. As a po­lice of­fi­cer, he earned ig­nominy and was con­victed in a case of moral turpi­tude. In the line of duty, he blood­ied his hands and soul with the killings of in­no­cent Sikh youth. In sports, he will al­ways be known as the man who presided over the death and fi­nal dec­i­ma­tion of In­dian hockey, cling like a limpet to the body ad­min­is­ter­ing the sport and fi­nally had to be kicked out to the ben­e­fit of prime time in­ter­na­tional TV.

Af­ter all, a su­per-cop’s ig­nominy has to be mul­ti­plied a mil­lion-times and beamed into all draw­ing rooms for his ego to be mas­saged. Rules made it dif­fi­cult to re­move KPS Gill from be­ing the Pres­i­dent of In­dian Hockey Fed­er­a­tion; so, the sports do­main hon­chos got to­gether and knocked out the IHF it­self. Now Gill has noth­ing to head.

While he has a Sikh face, it is re­mark­able that the com­mu­nity did not have to lose face in ei­ther case. The Sikhs have never had any love lost for him. KPS Gill killed the game of hockey. 

“Af­ter all, KPS Gill is the In­dia na­tion-state’s hero, who be­ing a Sikh, was re­spon­si­ble for the ex­tra­ju­di­cial killings of Sikhs in Pun­jab and ‘crush­ing the rights move­ment’. It was amus­ing to lis­ten to KPS in the last few days talk­ing of ‘democ­racy and fair play’. Man, he did make us laugh!”

KPS Gill has long cast their re­li­gion and re­li­gios­ity aside but it was clear that he has a lot to learn in hu­mil­ity, a ba­sic tenet of any faith.

Dic­ta­to­r­ial man­age­ment, bad plan­ning, no ac­count­abil­ity, de­clin­ing per­for­mance, fail­ure to qual­ify for Bei­jing Olympics and a bribery scan­dal were cited as “per­sis­tent rea­sons” for dis­man­tling the In­dian Hockey Fed­er­a­tion.  There were clear and pub­lic pres­sure from the In­ter­na­tional Hockey Fed­er­a­tion to clear up the mess in In­dian hockey. Prime Min­is­ter Man­mo­han Singh’s re­sponse was to make MS Gill, the for­mer Chief Elec­tion Com­mis­sioner, as the Sports min­is­ter in place of Mani Shankar Ai­yar, and let the two Gills slug it out. The slugfest did not last long. A sting op­er­a­tion that felled Gill’s ju­nior Jyothi Ku­maran ex­pe­dited things and soon Gill was on the mat.

Sec­tions of the In­dian me­dia did not stop try­ing to help out Gill. Full page in­ter­views, ref­er­ences to his ‘su­per-cop’ im­age and be­hind the scenes par­leys did not stop. A Walk­ing-Talk­ing ed­i­tor of an In­dian na­tional news­pa­per in­ter­viewed Gill just hours be­fore his fi­nal exit, giv­ing him full op­por­tu­nity to make his case. In fact, at one stage, Gill con­ceded he did not even re­mem­ber the names of the se­lec­tors of the In­dian hockey team. And the Ed­i­tor did not think of grilling Gill on even such an ad­mis­sion.

Just as in the moral turpi­tude case, Gill once again showed re­mark­able ca­pac­ity to strike his own foot on to the axe, of­ten with­out mov­ing the axe.

KPS Gill thought he was more im­por­tant than the game. KPS Gill tried to run In­dian hockey the way he ran Pun­jab Po­lice, all rules to the wind, and be­came tyrant yearn­ing for more. He is now a big loser.

Noth­ing of this is sur­pris­ing in In­dia.  As WSN has men­tioned ear­lier on var­i­ous oc­ca­sions, KPS Gill was given the post of hockey chief, to ad­just him af­ter he was ren­dered job­less and the gov­ern­ment of In­dia was obliged to ad­just him.  He was ad­justed but hockey was killed in the bar­gain. Never mind that.  In the in­ter­est of the state, that is a small sac­ri­fice.  Af­ter all, KPS Gill is the In­dia na­tion-state’s hero, who be­ing a Sikh, was re­spon­si­ble for the ex­tra­ju­di­cial killings of Sikhs in Pun­jab and ‘crush­ing the rights move­ment’.  It was amus­ing to lis­ten to KPS in the last few days talk­ing of ‘democ­racy and fair play’. Man, he did make us laugh!

“Noth­ing of this is sur­pris­ing in In­dia. As WSN has men­tioned ear­lier on var­i­ous oc­ca­sions, KPS Gill was given the post of hockey chief, to ad­just him af­ter he was ren­dered job­less and the gov­ern­ment of In­dia was obliged to ad­just him. He was ad­justed but hockey was killed in the bar­gain. Never mind that. In the in­ter­est of the state, that is a small sac­ri­fice. ”

At one point, Gill had said those de­mand­ing his res­ig­na­tion were like pro­fes­sional mourn­ers, the Rudalis. Thank­fully, Gill at least rec­og­nize that things have come to such a pass that Rudalis are beat­ing the path to his doorstep. He still could not hear the word: “GO!”

And down he went, with no one mourn­ing. In­dian Na­tion-State’s Hero made for one of the biggest Ze­roes on prime­time tele­vi­sion. Such is the fate of the man.

30 April 2008