Of Dog Poo…Falling Ceilings and the curse of the Commonwealth Games
The nineteenth Commonwealth Games is scheduled to be held in New Delhi, India, from October 3-14, 2010. It has generated a lot of news and almost all of it has been negative. In fact some of the news has been so downright depressing, that a lot of us would be wondering whether it would be good if this event were to not happen by any chance. As I write this, the official website of the games (http://www.cwgdelhi2010.org/?q=sports) says there are “10 Days, 22 Hours, 25 Mins and 14 secs” to go till the inauguration.
Why was this event important?
I write this in the past tense, because now there is little chance of these games doing anything positive for India’s reputation. There are those of us who might question the impact or the relevance or the importance of successfully hosting these games on India’s reputation if any?
There is a concept in western societies’ called “Debutante’ Balls/Cotillion Balls” or “Coming-Out” parties. It originally was an event where a young lady from an aristocratic/upper class family makes her social debut and signifies that she is ready for marriage.
The 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games was India’s “Coming-Out Party”.
For the better part of the 63 years that India has been free, the impression that the world has of us was a poor, impoverished, hungry and unsuccessful nation. It was a nation of snakes and snakes charmers! It was in the image of the poor naked child, his belly bloated due to malnutrition and his face covered in swarms of flies. It was in the kind of stuff shown in the “Slum Dog Millionaire”. Remember how indignant we all felt, how angry we were at Danny Boyle for reinforcing age-old western stereotypes of India.
Since the liberalization of the Indian economy in 1992, the country has made a lot of progress. I am not going to repeat all the facts, but you know them (4th Largest Economy in PPP terms, 8% economic growth, Fastest growing telecom market, XYZ Billionaires) etc. This was a new India, Strong (Nuclear Power), Successful and Rich (Economy etc), ready to take its rightful place in the pantheon of great nations.
So how were the Commonwealth Games going to achieve this?
Since time immemorial ‘empires’ have used the staging of grand events or impressive spectacles as statements of their strength, their wealth, a display of resources at their disposal. The purpose being, to leave participants at these events gaping with awe at the sheer scale at which the event was being held. These are massive public relations’ events which embellish the planets perception of the host nation. It is an acknowledged fact that hosting events of this magnitude represents a major challenge in terms of planning and execution (7000 participants from 71 countries). In many ways it is like an exclusive club; nuclear powers, satellite launcher’s, manned space missions, moon landings etc.
These games in Delhi were a precursor to a strong bid for the Olympics, the ‘holy grail’ of sporting spectacles. But the events that have transpired over the past two months have left the perception of our nation in shambles. In fact in one fell swoop, the reputation that we were assiduously building over the past two decades, of a 21st century super power has been seriously dented.
In the on-going race with China, about who is and will be the pre-eminent Asian superpower, these games had a certain symbolic value and that is now completely ruined. The comparisons have already started, recent articles in western newspapers have already started comparing the current state of Delhi and these games to that of Beijing and the Olympic Games in 2008. The contrast in the way they refer to China’s ability (awe mixed with fear) and India’s attempt (sympathy) is striking. This article sums it up (http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/an-indian-experience-will-make-us-forever-richer-20100923-15nqr.html), come to India for the “Joy”, the “peace”, the “inner satisfaction”, the “experience”… in other words, the ‘poor’ buggers are trying their best, don’t give them such a tough time please!
This condescending attitude is what we were trying to change, once and forever. You see, great nation’s nay empires will always have problems. There will always be insurrections, independence movements, unsatisfied communities, but these would be just challenges, that they would have to meet while simultaneously getting on with business. A Commonwealth Games, held minus any attack or any glitches would have been a slap in the face of people who hold doubts about India’s abilities to surmount her problems.
The Issues:
Delay:
Cursory glance of the Delhi Commonwealth Games website throws up some interesting facts:
- Games awarded for Delhi – November 2003
- Infrastructure Co-ordination Committee set up – February 2005
That’s a delay of 15 months to set up the nodal committee, and by the way the committee had to co-ordinate between the following organizations DDA, SAI, NDMC and PWD. This is a combination of state and central government authorities, always a recipe for disaster.
However, this excuse gets a bit diluted considering both the central and state governments were under the same party. Further press releases show that the intent was there, for example a press release dated May 19, 2009, gives us an idea of what the completion targets were like:
- All competition venues except cycling and Rugby 7s – December 2009
- Games village – March 1, 2010
Safe to say, we overestimated grossly! Compare this to other nations:
China has handed over the entire Asian Games Town for the Asian games in Guangzhou city, two months ahead of schedule and Poland has completed its main facility in Poznan for the Euro 2012, a full two years ahead of schedule!
Cost overrun
A report prepared by the India chapter of Housing and Land Rights Network, an arm of the Habitat International, estimated that the Official Cost of holding these games has gone up 525% since the city won the bid. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Commonwealth-Games-cost-up-1575-since-bid-NGO-audit/articleshow/5928237.cms)
- In 2003, the Bid document estimated the cost at Rs. 1,899 crore
- March 24, 2010, the CWG stated that the overall expenditure incurred would be Rs. 10,000 crore!
Cost escalation, attributed to infrastructure, accommodation, catering, opening and closing ceremonies, Queen's baton relay, rent for office of the organizing committee, communications, technology, risk management-insurance and volunteers amongst others.
I will not delve into the corruption allegations that have been made with respect to these games, but we all remember some of the more outrageous ones like leasing of treadmills for Rs. 10 lakhs, Chairs for Rs. 8,000 and refrigerators for Rs. 42,000 etc. In addition to these were the allegations of nepotism in the awarding of these contracts.
Suffice to say that these allegations did not surprise us much and in most cases elicited not outrage but a chuckle instead, because as far as scams go, this is a minor one! You know there was a tradition in India earlier, work was not done till bribes were paid and post that everything would move swiftly. But, we are now coming to an alarming stage where even corruption and ‘greasing of palms’ is not enough to get the job done, and that is just unacceptable!
Bumbling Leaders
Any one seen Lalit Bhanot’s, “Their standard is different from your standard, my standard, his standard, our standard. So we have to upgrade to their standard” comment? If you haven’t..you can see it here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q7ZAek0Yg8). It is beyond depressing. It is a pain to see these guys playing pass- the-parcel on national television. We are a very forgiving nation, all they need to say is sorry we screwed up, but we’ll ensure that we remedy the faults. Actually it is too comical to event comment on.
Learning
There is only one thing that comes to my mind; however you feel about it, nothing happens in India if the correct person is not backing a project. For all Mr. Kalmadi’s political clout or connection, with all due respect he is a political lightweight.
Contrast this to the 1982 Asian Games in Delhi, which was considered a resounding success, the person in charge of that was Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. Therefore if such events are to be held in future, then, if the nation is under a Congress Government, it should always be someone like Mr. Rahul Gandhi/ Mr. Pranab Mukherjee/ Mr. Manmohan Singh or if under a BJP government, then Mr. Arun Jaitley/ Ms. Sushma Swaraj/ Mr. Narendra Modi
Essentially the point being made is a big event should always be under the direct oversight of a very strong political leader. Wherein if there is a failure, it would affect their political reputation and that is an eventuality that would never come to pass. It is imperative for the government to fire on all cylinders and there be no instances of friendly fire, for example, Mr. Mani Shankar Aiyar stating publicly that the games are a colossal failure and that he wishes they fail, does no one any favors.
In my opinion there has been a very evident political sabotage of these events by detractors of Mr. Kalmadi and he was not able to prevent that from happening. The required closing of ranks within an administration, where there is a shared and collective effort to make something succeed under all odds was sorely missing.
Summary
Claims of “India Everywhere” (Davos 2006) and “India Shining” have been proved hollow. What we have lost is an amazing opportunity to gain much needed credibility that we are a nation that delivers.
While I hope and pray that I have jumped the gun by writing this, that our innate ability for “Jugaad” would see us through at the last minute. The question that we really need to answer is that are we finally ready to shed our past baggage and emerge as a nation that can face its destiny, whether we are as good as our word or whether we are still a nation that should just shut up and concentrate on feeding our poor, educating our children, saving our female child and reducing our poverty before trying to make any grand international statements!
