A decorated police officer, an Urdu poetry and music buff, and above all, an able sports administrator. Monday is the birth centenary of Ashwini Kumar — born in Jalandhar on December 28, 1920 and died in New Delhi on October 19, 2015.
Hockey administration and the Olympic movement brought international fame to Kumar, who was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 1972. He was president of the Indian Hockey Federation from 1958 to 1973-74 and vice-president of the FIH (International Hockey Federation) for most of his tenure as the former.
In 1982, Kumar was awarded the Order of Merit of the FIH. Kumar discovered three outstanding hockey players — Balbir Singh Sr., Udham Singh and Ajitpal Singh.
He had been the secretary-general of the Indian Olympic Association from 1956 to 1960 and 1970 to 1974. He was finally made its life president. He became part of the International Olympic Committee in 1973. During his association with the IOC, Kumar had been a member of the Executive Board from 1980 to 1987 and from 1992 to 1996 and vice-president from 1983 to 1987 (the first from India and Asia, Africa or Latin America to achieve this distinction). In 1994, Kumar won the IOC’s prestigious Centenary Award in recognition of his services to sports.
After 27 years of service to the IOC, Ashwini Kumar was made its honorary member in 2000. He received the Olympic Order of Merit in 2002 at the IOC’s 104th Congress in Mexico City. Kumar, who was honoured by various countries for his work relating to the Olympic Movement, had had the distinction of witnessing, and being part of, all Summer Olympics from 1948 London to 2012 London — 17 Olympics in all. He was also regularly invited to the Winter Olympics.
The IOC acknowledged his skill and expertise in matters of security by utilising his services from the Moscow Olympics till the end of the Sydney Olympics.
His father, Vishwa Nath, was a distinguished physician of pre-Partition Lahore. He did his Master’s in history from the Government College, Lahore. In his youth, Ashwini Kumar was a crack boxer, a fine hockey player, a good rower and a national-level athlete.
Top cop
Kumar’s police career began in 1942 when he joined the Imperial Police (precursor to the IPS) at the age of 22. Kumar had a career of 36 years in the police. After being Deputy Inspector-General in the Punjab Police, he had been the Director-General of the BSF from October 1, 1974 to December 31, 1978 when he retired. The BSF Officers’ Mess in Nizamuddin, New Delhi is named after him.
Kumar was awarded the President’s Medal for Gallantry twice, the President’s Medal for Distinguished Service and the Police Medal for Meritorious Service.
Kumar was good at, and extremely fond of, Urdu poetry and music. He was the president of the Harballabh Music Festival of India annually held in Jalandhar. Kumar had even written a book on Indian classical music, Casual Symphony.
Kumar and his wife, Renu, the niece of G.D. Sondhi, the first IOC member from India, had two daughters, Rohini (nicknamed Hockey due to Kumar’s passion for the sport) and Yamini.
vijayanbala@hotmail.com
