The Commonwealth Games are a symptom of many deeper malaises

International sporting events are meant to serve as advertisements for their host countries.

The recently concluded soccer World Cup had the effect of demonstrating that no matter what we may have read about South Africa, the country was well-organised

enough to host a global tournament with style and élan. The last Olympics served as China’s coming-out party to the world in much the same way as the 1964 Olympics served notice that Japan was now ready to became an international player.

 

   Our own experience with the 1982 Asian Games was similar. India agreed to host the Games during the chaotic Janata years. When Indira Gandhi’s government came to office in 1980, it discovered that preparations were far behind target and so, it scrambled to treat the organization of the Games as a prestige issue. The success of those Games sent out two messages. Internationally, it suggested that India was not the disorganized mess that the rest of Asia thought it was. And domestically, the Games marked the emergence of a new generation of leaders.

 

   The 2010 Commonwealth Games were awarded to India in 2003 but precious little seems to have been done by the BJP government which won them to lay the groundwork for their organization. When the Congress came to power a little later, it did not follow Indira Gandhi’s example and get the government involved in organizing the Games. Instead, the Indian Olympic Association, led by Suresh Kalmadi spearheaded the effort while simultaneously squabbling with various Union Sports Ministers, some of whom had either no interest in sport or were ineffectual gasbags.

 

   Now, with only two months left to go, there is little hope that these Games will be an effective global advertisement for India. Forget about replicating the success of the South African World Cup or the Chinese Olympics, it seems likely that these Games will not even approach the success of the 1982 Asiad.

 

   I am enough of an optimist to believe that in true Indian fashion we will manage to ride over all the obstacles at the last minute and that the Games will not be the fiasco that some writers are predicting. But I do believe that mess we find ourselves in raises certain long-term questions which deserve answers.

 

   It has long been an article of faith among educated Indians that the moment you get the government involved in something, you end up with delays and corruption. This is probably true but the example of the Commonwealth Games demonstrates that the opposite is not necessarily true: take the Games away from the government, hand them over to an autonomous body organized like a modern corporation and you still have no guarantees of efficiency or organization.

 

   I have no desire to sit in judgement over Suresh Kalmadi who loudly protested his innocence in an interview to the HT on Thursday but even a four-year-old can tell that the Games reek of corruption and dishonesty.

 

   The sheer weight of the charges – kickbacks, needless commissions to mysterious off-shore companies, forged letters, unexplained payments to non-existent London firms, inflated purchase figures, etc. – is so great that no denials will seem convincing. Clearly a lot of people have got very rich out of these Games.

 

   Now that the skeletons are tumbling out, the organisers of the Games are blackmailing us. We may be crooks, they say, but if you act against us then this could endanger the Games which are only a few weeks away. So like it or not, you are stuck with us.

 

   The problem is that they may be right. Any action against the crooks may have to wait till the Games are over. The racketeers are hoping that, in classic Indian style, if the Games go off relatively well, we will forget about these charges.

 

   Here too, they may be right. The fact that such corrupt people have got so far shows how little accountability there is in the Indian system. And perhaps, they will get away with it in the relief that will follow the success of the Games.

 

   So, here’s my question: why does the Indian system allow crooks to get so far? Why does it require the media to expose the level of rank dishonesty? And why do people who everyone refers to as crooks continue to flourish?

 

   The Commonwealth Games are a symptom of many deeper malaises. One of them is the sickness that afflicts Indian sport. Many of the people who have been responsible for this mess – across sports federations – are the same people who have been running Indian sport for decades.

 

   Because the Commonwealth Games are so high-profile, we have finally been forced to pay attention to what they are really up to. And everything we have learnt over the last four weeks confirms what sportsmen and women have been saying for decades: Indian sport is run by crooks who have no interest in sport but care only about their own wallets.

 

"The Games will cost upwards of Rs 35,000 crores. Spend that money on cleaning up the traffic systems of Bombay and Delhi and you would reduce jams and congestion – a benefit the citizens of both cities would value more than the stadiums that have been built in the capital."

   It is significant that in all the discussions about the Games that have been raging for so many weeks, the players have hardly been mentioned. We now treat it as a given that despite being the most populous country in the Commonwealth, we will not emerge at the top of the medals tally. The story of Indian sport (outside of cricket) is a story of permanent third-ratedness interrupted by brief spells of second-ratedness.

 

   So, here’s my second question: why don’t we look beyond these Games and ensure that the crooks who have brought Indian sport to this sorry pass are thrown out of sports organizations forever?

 

   It is convenient to treat Suresh Kalmadi as the source of all that is wrong with the Games – and certainly he has a lot to answer for.

 

   But the truth is that it isn’t just the Games organizers who have failed. The leaking infrastructure, the collapsing roads, the delayed projects, the incomplete Games village, etc. have little to do with the Organizing Committee.

 

   They are entirely the fault of the government. The Sports Authority of India, the DDA (under the Urban Development Ministry), the NDMC and the state government have all failed to meet their targets or to complete projects to international standards.

 

   What’s worse is that many of the cases that the Central Vigilance Commission is looking at relate to corruption within government bodies, not just the Organizing Committee of the Games.

 

   Yet, have you heard one Central Minister (I exclude the Delhi Chief Minister because she has been honest and upfront) accepting responsibility for the screw-ups or promising action against errant and dishonest officials? They are all thrilled that Kalmadi is in the line of fire because it gets them off the hook. And sadly, we are content to let them get away with it.

 

   So, here’s my third question: why doesn’t the government of India accept that it shares responsibility for the disaster? The government has failed to impose accountability on the organizing committee; the sports ministry is a joke which should be renamed the ‘talk ministry’; and the infrastructure has not been delivered on schedule.

 

   And finally, the big question. The Games will cost upwards of Rs 35,000 crores. Spend that money on cleaning up the traffic systems of Bombay and Delhi and you would reduce jams and congestion – a benefit the citizens of both cities would value more than the stadiums that have been built in the capital. Spend that money of developing an infrastructure for Indian sport at the mass level and you would give talented sport people a means of breaking through.

 

   I use these two examples – rather than the hundreds of schools and hospitals you could build with this money – because the two arguments used to justify this expenditure are that a) Delhi will get civic improvements and b) that Indian sport will benefit. Both are weak and unconvincing justifications.

 

   In fact, there is only one reason for hosting an international sporting event: to show off your country to the world.

 

   So, here’s my final question: given that we have no desire to show Suresh Kalmadi off to the world; given that the Commonwealth Games are not a global event on par with say, the Olympics or the soccer World Cup; and given that sport is not the strongest selling point in the India story; should we be wasting so much money and diverting funds meant for Dalits on such pointless spectacles?

 

   There are things that India does well. And we should show them off. But organizing a sporting tournament is not one of them.