V.Ok. Malhotra: Indian archerys godfather and IOAs former stop-gap chief

Aside from being a seasoned politician, veteran BJP chief Vijay Kumar Malhotra was additionally an completed sports activities administrator and will likely be remembered as the person who launched and moulded archery right into a high sport within the nation.

Malhotra, who handed away on Tuesday (September 30, 2025) on the age of 93 because of age-related illnesses, was the go to man for interim cost within the highest echelons of Indian sport throughout his hey days.

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

Known to be a clear, and non-confrontational administrator, he guided the IOA via a troublesome time when the nation’s sporting picture was battered by the 2010 CWG scandal.

He, in reality, managed to carry a semblance of sanity to the IOA administration through the transient interval below his watch. He largely stayed away from the murky politics of the faction-ridden physique.

A comfortable spoken and genial individual, Malhotra cherished interacting with the media at his official residence in Delhi. His interim tenure was adopted by an election which finally led to the suspension of the IOA by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Chef-de-Mission for Tehran Asian Games in 1974

The election of Abhay Singh Chautala as president and Lalit Bhanot as secretary normal led to a ban on the IOA on December 4, 2012, solely to be revoked by the IOC on February 11, 2014. Malhotra finally grew to become a life president of the IOA.

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

Indian archery was, nonetheless, nurtured by Malhotra, and he was the nationwide federation’s president for greater than 40 years — from 1973 to 2015.

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

Perseverant efforts

Formed in 1973, a 12 months after the game was chosen to turn out to be an Olympic self-discipline within the 1972 Munich Games, it was below Archery Association of India (AAI) that archery took roots in India via the perseverant efforts of Malhotra, who was additionally the Chief Executive Councillor of Delhi at the moment.

The concept germinated throughout Malhotra’s stint with the Indian contingent within the 1972 Munich Olympics.

According to old-timers who’ve been related to him, Malhotra noticed 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 primary Senior National Archery Championship was held in Delhi in April, 1973, which was fairly a spectacle with about 50 women and men taking part with bows and arrows manufactured from bamboo.

Malhotra after which AAI Secretary General Gopesh Mehra launched archery in Asia, and Asian Archery Federation (now referred to as World Archery Asia) was shaped in Bangkok through the Asian Games in 1978.

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

Commonwealth Archery Federation was shaped through the Commonwealth Championship and Malhotra was elected as its president. He performed a significant function in together with archery within the 2010 Commonwealth Games roster.

Malhotra’s final election as AAI president in 2012, when he was 80, was in defiance of the age and tenure restriction clause below the federal government’s Sports Code. As a outcome, the federal government de-recognised AAI.

Archers have grown exponentially over time successful medals on the Asian, Commonwealth and World Championship ranges regardless that an Olympic medal continues to be awaited.

He stop in 2015, and was made chairman of the All Indian Council of Sports (AICS), an advisory physique to the Sports Ministry that additionally ensured a minister of state rank for the heavyweight chief.