Hold your breath... for this was once billed as the moment when India, emerging economic force and aspiring global powerhouse, would proudly strut its stuff, leave foreign visitors awe-struck with state-of-the-art facilities and immaculate organisation, inflict jealousy upon eyeballs worldwide… and then, bathed in the glory of acclaim, lay claim to the highest honour in hosting rights — the Olympic Games.
Hold your breath... because of the stink raised by the endless embarrassment that has assaulted public consciousness ever since we, the people, were alerted to that much-storied spectacle otherwise known as the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games.
Today, as the script for the most significant chapter of this tale commences its 12-day journey to October 14, there lie in wait twists and turns whose significance has been magnified by the fallout of earlier incidents.
In the line of ire
Dubious deals and appalling arrangements have put India’s image, if not the event itself, in peril. And, over the next few days, should existing insult and injury be aggravated further, international question marks against this country’s capacity to deliver upon its commitments will become near indelible.
Should the extravagant exercise that is the Commonwealth Games end in a debacle, none would be angered more than ordinary citizens of the land from whom taxes have been wrung out to finance the project. The current sound and fury of international athletes and foreign delegates is but transient, their disappointment will leave with them when the show is over; administrators and officials facing charges of avarice and apathy will take recourse to blame games waiting for the storm to blow over, and most of them would expect to escape unscathed once attention is diverted by design or default to other issues demanding attention.
What threatens to linger like a festering wound is the indignation at public money — more accurately, whatever escaped pilferage by rapacious keepers of our faith — being used to erect a monument of shame, the pain of betrayal, and outrage over our expectations and self-respect being compromised.
Indeed, if there are many among us who feel anything but enthusiasm for the show ahead it is because those who have pushed what held promise of a national celebration to the brink of disaster stand arrogantly confident that they will never be punished for their sins of omission and commission.
Greater expectations
With the event already bombarded by manifold problems — rampant corruption, delays and disputes, issues of hygiene, terrorist threats, international condemnation — it might not be enough for the organisers to work in a more efficient manner from hereon.
For, where the goal was to showcase a new, improved India to an international audience of significant scale and thus hand over a propaganda coup to the government and a liberal dose of real-life Jai-Ho confidence to the governed, attainable dreams have been turned into a nightmare.
Mired in corruption, complacency and controversy, the multiple authorities involved have surrendered almost everything about the October 3-14 event to chance. Consider the absurdity of this avoidable situation — the only athletes to have made headlines till now are the ones who have withdrawn from the competition — and the inevitable stares us in the face. Criticism and negative reporting will continue.
Which is why the yardstick for the success or failure of Delhi 2010 is drastically different from that adopted for any preceding version of the Commonwealth Games.
Date with fate
This does not necessarily mean that the time, effort and money invested in the Commonwealth Games will suffer a tragic ending. Much can be done to script change that we, and the rest of the world, believe in. Moreover, there lie before us instances of major sporting events plagued by problems managing to salvage success from desperate situations.
International anxiety over Vancouver’s dire lack of snow (2010 Winter Olympics), South Africa’s heinous crime rates (2010 FIFA World Cup), Athens’s smog and Beijing’s hardline regime were, for the most part, overlooked when these events began.
And subsequently, as action on the field of play took centre-stage, other stories took over. And yet, though optimism exhorts us to hope for a miracle, there exists no guarantee that India will dodge further image-bashing.
Even as a public relations disaster looms, claims by the organisers that the worst of the crisis is over have not been supported by tangible evidence.
The pretence of appearing united in the face of adversity has been blown to pieces with various talking heads — Commonwealth Games Federation president Mike Fennell, chief executive Mike Hooper, Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi, Union Sports Minister MS Gill and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit — clashing in public over who should take the blame for the state of affairs.
If this event is to be rescued from the chaos it has plunged into, conspiracy theories and infighting must be put on hold at least till such time as the last of our international guests has left. There lurk in the shadows far too many potential dangers for the organisers to place politicking over preparedness.
To be or not to be?
After all the disappointments and controversies that the Commonwealth Games and its host nation have endured in recent times, any measure of success achieved by those who should have been in focus all along but have been denied their due — India’s participating athletes — will be welcomed wholeheartedly. Ironically, there lies on their shoulders a burden heavier than ever borne by administrators who shun responsibility and accountability. While a rich harvest of medals by its sportspersons can help India gloss over shortcomings elsewhere, ‘failure’ — subjective though the word is — on their part will be recorded as a setback for a country which scaled the podium thrice in the last Olympiad and aspires for greater laurels.
History will not judge the biggest multi-discipline sporting extravaganza in the country since the 1982 Asian Games purely on the merit of the event as a spectacle or for its edge-of-the-seat action. Instead, for an event whose build-up has been marked by the exodus of international athletes and the threat of mass boycott, judgment will be based on whether further damage is averted and goodwill created. Internally and externally — for its own people and the rest of the world — India needs to pass this exacting test.
Either way, there will be a show… even if it is on the sidelines.
Wait to exhale.
Till then, enjoy the Commonwealth Games.
siddharthamishra@expressbuzz.com