Even if the remaining week to the Delhi Commonwealth Games goes without further incident and the Games are actually held, well, successfully, its highly incompetent Indian organising committee would have given the country’s signature phrase ‘Incredible India’ a whole new meaning.
The Games have faced an unending stream of problems beginning with the impossibly late start to the preparations. Though the country had four years to prepare, any substantial work on infrastructural facilities was begun barely a year ago, resulting in incomplete facilities, substandard construction that has begun falling apart even before the Games have begun and mounting allegations of corruption, nepotism and favouritism in awarding contracts.
The collapse of a foot bridge and parts of the ceiling over the boxing facility besides a random shootout injuring a couple of Taiwanese tourists in central New Delhi have shaken the Games at its very foundation in the past week, creating an unending swirl of rumours and doubts if the Games will go ahead at all.
These problems have been compounded because of a heavier than normal rainy season that has resulted in floods in large swathes of the subcontinent from Pakistan in the west to Assam in the east, bringing in its wake large scale disruption and outbreaks of mosquito borne diseases like dengue, which has plagued areas around the Games venues for the past month.
It is hardly a surprise that as things stand, a few gold medal-winning star sportspeople have pulled out citing these problems and entire national teams have put their decision to participate in the Games on hold.
Though every organiser of events of such scale is bound to experience tense moments during the run up no matter how well it is planned, the state of affairs we have seen unfold in Delhi these past few weeks is unprecedented for any international event anywhere.
While everybody everywhere would sympathise with the country on account of the damage done by the weather and the security situation, which indeed are world phenomena today, there can be none of it for the selfishly indulgent mismanagement and the brazen corruption that has resulted in embarrassingly delayed and substandard facilities.
Delegations from New Zealand and three other countries were so appalled and disgusted at the filthy conditions at the Games village, that they not only refused to stay there but termed the quarters unlivable – with one having said that describing it as filthy was actually being generous.
At the time of writing, the New Zealand contingent is divided on whether to stay at the alternative accommodation offered to them at the village, stay in hotels or pull out entirely. Prime Minister John Key has said he would respect athletes’ individual decisions on whether to participate given the chaos in Delhi.
Even if the Games go ahead without further incident, their run up has unfortunately served to highlight the legendarily monumental corruption that imbues all spheres of public life in India on the world stage.
Delhi’s ugly underbelly has grown so brazenly and glaringly big that the tattered and increasingly diaphanous loincloth of a cloying pretence of propriety is no longer enough to conceal it from the world’s eyes.
Corrupt sports politicos have not only thwarted a billion Indians from winning Olympic gold through all these decades, but have also shown the world how it can thwart a billion Indians from staging an event like the Commonwealth Games. A nation of a billion people who have nuclear capability, who have the capacity to launch an space expedition to the moon and whose software skills are sought the world over.
The stories of corruption surrounding the Games and their consequences which are there for all to see will only serve to intensify long held beliefs of the systemic corruption in the Indian polity in world opinion. This is bound to be reflected in the world’s dealings with the country in all spheres for years to come and will require a herculean effort to bring about a change in perception.
The Games were a golden chance to showcase the world that India could do it – just as China did with the Olympics. And even if the Games go ahead without further incident and minimal disruptions, it will be rather like the dog walking on two legs – it’s awkward, but everyone is surprised that it’s done at all.
Right thinking Indians, embarrassed beyond words by the shoddy, self-serving machinations of Delhi’s corrupt and unprincipled mandarins that have brought such ignominy to the nation would be hoping for this outcome in the least.
– Dev Nadkarni