CWG and the reality that is India

Article published in  afternoondc.in  Dt. September 20th, 2010 :

Sellotape Legacy (Delhi and the Commonwealth Games) by Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta is very timely and on the dot. As more and more details of sordid corruption and financial profligacy surface with unfailing regularity, here is an extremely well-researched book on the Commonwealth Games (CWG) by two authors who probably had a bead on all the major players involved

Long before he became a politician, Suresh Kalmadi was an Air Force pilot. Among his favourite memories was landing planes at Leh, the highest airport in the world, when there were no proper runways. Now we have poorly finished stadiums. Can he deliver? Shekhar Gupta, while interviewing him in October 2009, described him as ‘somebody who will decide whether by 2010 we are a very proud country or a very embarrassed country.’ We are already somewhat red-faced.

Parliamentary records show that at the time of government approval for the Games, the budget estimate had been only Rs.617.50 crore. When the Vajpayee government then agreed to fund any shortfall between revenue and expenditure, it was like proffering a blank signed cheque. By March 2003, when Delhi submitted its official bid, the budget estimate had tripled to Rs.1,895.30 crore. The financing of the GWG has been the subject of parliamentary questioning since 2004. On paper, with the diagrams and graphs, the Games seem to be a most well-organised event. It is only when you look at the performance data submitted by various ministries, that you come face to face with the reality that is India: huge cost overruns, and estimations gone crazily haywire. In early 2009, a senior Delhi government official calmly pointed out – the total games spending on city infrastructure was Rs.65,550 crore. When clubbed with other costs, the total amount could well touch Rs.70,000 crore.

Though this book explores the politics of the Games and the monstrous sums of money being spent, what is now becoming more than evident is that too many have seen this as an opportunity to skim off whatever they could for frivolous reasons at that. The absurd purchase of toilet rolls at Rs.4,000 a piece are a case in (shameless) point.

Just like in the case of the callous MBC and the MMRDA of Mumbai, trees have been major victims in Delhi. The basketball and squash complex at Siri Fort saw hundreds of full grown ancient trees felled in the green area. Another deplorable decision was to set up an underground parking lot, destroying the greenery forever. Thousands of trees have been hacked away and felled – leaving an adverse environmental impact for Delhi’s future generations. Strangely, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said in early 2009, “We are also concerned about the green cover, but as a government we have to move on.” The DDA has gone on record and countered that no rules were broken and 8,000 trees were planted in lieu of the 700 cut down around Siri Fort - sounds similar to the tales spun by our own civic bodies here in Mumbai.

The plight of lakhs of Delhites forcibly resettled from 350 slum clusters for the Games Village remains unaddressed, with just a third of them provided with alternative locations miles away from the city. The ground reality is terribly different, with a mad rush on to ready the infrastructure already delayed for months past deadlines. Corruption, exposed in all its absurdity, is being swept under the carpet of obfuscation and outright denials, and sports, the focal issue of the CWG, has taken a back seat.

INSET

Though this book explores the politics of the Games and the monstrous sums of money being spent, what is now becoming more than evident is that too many have seen this as an opportunity to skim off whatever they could…

Sellotape Legacy by Boria Majumdar & Nalin Mehta
HarperCollins Publishers
Price Rs.450

Article published in  afternoondc.in  Dt. September 20th, 2010 : original link in headline above.

Just a game, but was it worth the shame?

News published in  Deccan chronicle Dt. September 26th, 2010 :

Humiliation”, “ineptitude”, “corruption” and “filth” are not the sort of adjectives one expects to see or hear repeated ad nauseum days before India embarks on its biggest sports event in almost three decades.

Yet with the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games just seven days away, these were the most frequently used words in the public domain thanks to the unnerving inability of the country's sports administrators to get their act together with D-Day having been decided almost eight years earlier.

India will have splashed out in excess of Rs 70,000 crores for this extravaganza, building — or rather, rebuilding — a raft of stadia for the CWG and desperately pushing through a myriad of development projects in the host city, Delhi. From an initial budget estimate of about Rs 617 crore when India were first awarded the Games in December of 2002, costs rose steadily and will peak at around the Rs 71,000-crore mark.

This mammoth escalation represents an unheard of inflation, more than a hundred times the initial costing for the 12-day Games that will finally see almost 7,000 participants descend on the national capital. At the end of it all, if we get a show to remember - which is still possible given India's native genius of jugaad - it may still be bearable. But what we and much of the English-speaking world has instead been exposed to is a litany of hyperbole, false assurances and downright lies. At every step, costs have risen beyond rational expectation, and delivery has never matched promise.

Leaky stadia, falling roofs, collapsing structures and unmet deadlines have been the hallmark of the run-up to these Games. Presiding over all of this are a group of administrators who have run pell-mell at the power and pelf on offer, but have happily shirked any scent of responsibility, be it sports minister M.S. Gill, Indian Olympic Association boss Suresh Kalmadi, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit or any one of a number of sticky-fingered officials. And then there is the nightmarish spectacle of uncouth administrators justifying their complete lack of preparation by some remarkable verbal contortions that in effect implied the Indians were a dirty lot and they - these amazing administrators - were being asked to walk an extra mile because of the unreasonable goras, who apparently have a different standard of hygiene than ours. One would have liked to see the reaction of the wives of these two men if they had tried to pull this spiel at home.

As it stands, the Games Village - home to the 7,000-odd visitors participating in CWG 19 -needed desperate attention by an army of cleaners, plumbers, electricians, painters and house-keeping staff before their quarters were made liveable. What will happen at the stadia when thousands of spectators pour in to watch some worth-class athletes, swimmers, boxers, wrestlers and hockey players in action is another matter altogether. 

Here too the omens are not happy. Last week, a footbridge linking the Nehru Stadium - venue of the opening and closing ceremonies, the athletics events and weightlifting competition - to a nearby parking area went down even as it was being erected. This, in turn, raises the prospects of a nightmare scenario bringing the structural stability of other such rush jobs into question.

At the end of it all, if the residents of Delhi are to get access to these “world class” facilities, it may still have been worth the expense and time, but even that is uncertain given what happened in the aftermath of Asiad 1982, when expensive stadia were allowed to fall into disrepair because there were no plans for what to do with them after the Games ended.

The biggest - indeed bitterest - irony is that this massive expense on 12 days of competition is coming out of the purse of a nation where anything between 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the population (depending on whose figures you want to believe) are hard put to earn a measly Rs 20 a day on average.

Contrast all this with China’s preparations for the Asian Games in Guangzhou from November 12 to 27, where all has been in readiness for close to six months already. Groups of sports officials, journalists and other experts have been flown in - first to suggest improvements and changes - and thereafter inspect the final preparations almost six months in advance. The Asiad organisers too have spend massively, but most of the money has gone into greenfield facilities that gives yet another Chinese city world class sporting facilities after Beijing, Shanghai and a few others.

If only we could have learnt some lessons from those across the Himalayas before throwing away such a large percentage of those Rs 71,000 crores, it may have been a very different story here too.

News published in  Deccan chronicle Dt. September 26th, 2010 : original link in headline above.

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CWG : opening ceremony : what a spectacular show !

CWG : Opening Ceremony : What a spectacular show, Great performance, Perfect coordination, but it costed Rs. 200 crores. We still liked it as it proved it's metal to the world. Now the real test is the GOLD we get in the games.

Pics with thanks from : IBN live, Zee News, The Hindu, Sify .....

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CWG - Opening ceremony

Dear Mr. Vohra ji,

 

We all join you in chorus "Go India; Go for Gold"! We are hopeful that we would secure the second position in the medals tally which will be a significant achievement.  All the money spent and time and energy consumed/devoted by all sports lovers will be overcome if all of us are rewarded with a rich haul of medals unprecendented in the history of the Games!

 

We should also heartily congratulate richly compliment the Organizers on the magnificent and stupendous and colourful Opening Ceremony, show-causing our rich culture and heritage! It is said: 'Begin well; will end well". Let it be true in words and spirit!

 

We have to bear the enormous cost after the Games are over in many ways and all will then realise whether such a multi-sport event is essential to show our progress in many fields!

 

With best wishes,

 

TK Balu

Secretary/RBECHS/Anand Vihar

CWG Stamp

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Standing ovation for India

India's delegation led by flagbearer and shooter Abhinav Bindra arrives onto the field during the XIX Commonwealth Games opening ceremony at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on October 3, 2010.

With thanks : Images : AFP  & Sify

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India has serious chances of bidding for Olympics: Rogge

New Delhi: India holds a serious chance of bidding for the Olympics, if it manages to give a successful and incident-free Commonwealth Games to the world, said Jacques Rogge, the President of International Olympic Committee.

 

In an interview to an Indian news channel, Rogge said that the fundamentals are in place for India to bid for the Olympics. The only thing the country now needed to look at is the Commonwealth Games- which start here on Sunday- is carried out well and fine.

“There is a difference between Olympics and Commonwealth Games. Olympics is bigger and more complicated,” said Rogge.

“But I think India has set a good foundations tone for the Olympics bid and a successful Commonwealth Games can help India mount a serious bid for Olympics,” he added.

Rogge also said that looking at the way the country is moving ahead with the Games, the entire event will surely ‘make India proud’ and portray it in a good light.

“I think the Games will make India proud. It is something we can show to the world that we can organize an event of such big stature,” he said.

He also said that India “should, can and will” to well at the Games.

 

with thanks : Zee News : link in headline for detailed news.

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The little known facts of the CWG Opening Ceremony

New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) About 1,200 moving lights, 25 stacks of speakers and about 2,700 shots of fireworks spread across the roof of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium combined with a stage weighing 500 tonnes to create a spectacular opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games here today. The gigantic main stage, inspired by the ''mandala'', a sanskrit word for the geometric designs symbolic of the universe in Hinduism and Buddhism, which is one of the largest built for an opening and closing ceremony.

The stage was built within seven days by about 500 workers. Weighing an approximately 500 tonnes.

The stage is large enough to hold 500 people under it. The opening ceremony would have never been that spectacular had it not been for the lighting arrangements.

1,200 moving lights, 120 space cannons and 16 follow spots weighing approximately 75 tonnes was what it took to enchant the about 60,000 spectators. The 25 stacks of speakers produced 500,000 Watts of sound.

If one was impressed by the fireworks, it was because of the 2,700 shots spread over 88 locations on the roof of the stadium. The crowd had erupted in joy as the firecrackers went up in air heralding the beginning of the Games.

The entire system was supported by over 50 km of power cables that were used to provide constant power for the opening ceremony.

with thanks : Yahoo News

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CWG : Opening ceremony : A spectacular show

The Indian heritage, Indian culture as well the real strength of India was  clearly visible in the opening ceremony of the CWG show. Indeed it required a lot of efforts & coordination from all the sections. And surprisingly, Bollywood was not there though Shyam Benegal was behind the show.

But the viewers on DD were shocked to find long advertisements in the live show & hence missed a massive part of it. Why it was an exclusive show on DD is not understood. Why the other media was blacked out of it , is not clear. We expected a few words from Delhi CM but it was not there. But definitely, you can't expect anything less than that,  from a show that costed  Rs. 200 Crores. The 70 crores Helium Baloon was marvelous.

Now we expect India to go for the GOLD and that will be the real achievement.

With best wishes,

B S Vohra

East Delhi RWAs Joint Front

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Go India ! Go For Gold !

Go India ! Go For Gold !

with best wishes

East Delhi RWAs Joint Front
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Volunteers yet to get access cards

Sunny Bhatt was made to wait the whole day on Friday for his accreditation card. But despite bearing the searing heat at Pragati Maindan, he could not get his hands on the 'elusive' pass. He was not alone as the long queues outside both the volunteers' hall at Pragati Maidan and the Organising Committee headquarters clearly showed the pace of official work just two days before the Games are scheduled to begin. 

"I have come from Sonepat and have been camping here for a week. I have the ID and the registration number required for the card but have yet not been issued the actual accreditation," said a visibly agitated Bhatt.   

Another volunteer at the OC headquarters said she was told that the ministry had cleared the forms but the people responsible for issuing them at the designated venues have not cleared them. 

"If the ministry has cleared my form, which other organisation remains to clear it further? I now understand why so many volunteers have simply left the programme," said Sonal Gupta, who added that she has been visiting the OC office for the last three days but got only ambiguous answers in return. 

with thanks : Hindustan times : link in headline above for detailed news.

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