Don't get away with the title above, its still the very 'Common Wealth Games', although, one of the most uncommon, I think!
As we approach towards the result part of this four year years long franticism in the national capital, the fears of getting emabarassed hover around us, even the night dreams are not spared! With media investigating & muckraking hard over the CWG and its brazen handling, we the common part of this Wealth Games, are left thinking whether all this are worth it or not.
India celeberated when C.M. of Delhi, Mrs. Sheila Dixit recieved the torch of CWG, an approval of the fact that we, the Indians, wll be hosting it four years later. The concerned authority and the organisatons, whether government or non-govt., showed a lot of concerns to make the Games become a huge success for our nation's pride and credibility along with fostering the sporting passion in the nation.But what thereafter??? The real loot-fest started from the day the Games reached India. Right from the low level builders, contractors, etc to the high level Organising Committee members and its Chairman, it seems that everybody is in somekind of race to win. A race to make most of the allotted funds, which I must tell you, already has crossed its original figures many times.INCREDIBLE INDIA, isn't it???
The leaders are presenting or trying to present before us a picture of a world-class Games venues and success, with the promise that the venues(can't call them venues still!) will be ready very soon and in the stipulated time. But will anybody tell me what is their so called "Stipulated Time-Limit"? At the start it was six months, then three months and now it has drowned to the hopeless 15 days. Not at all startling if someone fears to compare it with the huge Olympic Games and says that the oomph has lost from these games (add to it that the big names have already chosen to stay out of this and ofcourse the doping tests getting positive for many big names in our nation too).
In a country with some of the world's lowest labour costs and relatively cheap construction materials, comparisons with other international venues are obviously irrelevant. But the figure that comes out are really startling, the 2006 Melbourne Games ran up a bill of $1 billion compared to the expected (never expect anything from these guys) Delhi sports expenditure of $12 billion. What about the extra money guys? Whatever hopes some people had of the games seeing what the Beijing Olympics did for China, has long been discarded. With such a huge fiscal malpractice and gross mismanagement of funds, I can assure you (ofcourse I am not trying to take away the credits from these organisers, who have already assured it) that we will be getting poorer by a grotesque figure of about $30 billion, as in rush to get Delhi ready for the Games, there has been little responsibility of how & where the funds have been spent. Still some of us are viewing it as a part of Games-Driven-Development.
It's been our legacy that we are never on time and have a lot of funds to waste on anything (not to complain if half of the population don't have roof over their heads & grains inside the body). Once a Japanese delegation, which was on a visit to India, commented that 'almost everybody in India carries a wrist-watch on their hands, but there's hardly anybody who is there on time!' We have the largest democracy in the world and it seems that the award of largest bunch of minister also goes to us, even then these hypocrites don't know how & where to spend!
What I mean by this is that there must be some criteria on which the allocation of funds are made to have such paraphernalia-whose worth are still a big question for the economy & budget and ofcourse, the public too. We all know the 1982 Asiad. It's been a sobering example of how little mega events can do towards sports in any country. Stadiums remain vacant after the games. The fund allocation & decision making must be open to public display & public must be encouraged to participate in decision making & their valuable opinions must be realised. But in our great nation (don't know whether the greateness will remain after this loot-fest ends up), nobody even bothers about auditing the games at all as that will reveal large scale corruption. Don't forget that Quasi-Nationalistic appeal of Mrs. Sheila Dixit, to not to behave in an anti-nationalistic way by spreading any wrong messages about CWG. But will anybody go & ask her, what should we call this frantic activity, that has been going on in Delhi for four years, a nationalistic activity, which will raise the pride of our nation to a new height in the coming days? ( just wish this had been the case)
Who will take the responsibility if the Games become a failure? Don't even try to bother to look for answers, as the answers are even more bothering! With the games just hanging around to start, we are left with nothing, but to just wait & watch. With a hope that the venues & at leats some of the important infrastructure are ready before the actual shot day. In the coming days, Delhi will cover its reality with an idea to distract & mesmerize guests with pomp and colour. But, its very important & necessary too, that with India planning to bid for 2019 Asiad & harbouring ambitions-admittedly improbable-of bidding for 2020 Olympics, lessons from this shambolic run-up to the games must not be forgotten when talk of hosting another mega sporting event comes up!!!
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