India's image-defining games
Heated discussion has been the main mark of the run-up to India's hosting of the 19th Commonwealth Games. Willingness to see it as a coming-of-age party for an emerging Asian power has created much tension between expectations and reality so far. How will India live up to the expectations and project its image on the global stage? Vaughan Yarwood takes stock of the obstacles along the way.
Preparation for the Commonwealth Games, which have been pitched as something of an international coming-out party heralding India’s arrival as a superpower, has not been smooth so far. In stark contrast to China’s staging of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, New Delhi’s efforts have been dogged by bad publicity.
On 27 July 2010, with just 67 days on the clock until the Games opened in New Delhi, a crack appeared in India’s readiness to host the prestigious event. During the National Federation Cup — widely considered a dry run for the Games — a young swimmer was injured by a loose grill at the SP Mukherjee stadium.
Though minor in itself, the Times of India found the incident worrying. The swimming complex was far from ready, said the paper.
“Loose tiles, loose grills, protruding iron rods, unfinished staircases and tonnes of rubbish outside told a sad story of unpreparedness, and worse, a slapdash attitude towards an event that’s billed to raise India’s international prestige, but could easily end up as an embarrassment”.
Soutik Biswas, the online correspondent for BBC News in India, called the government “curiously silent”, in the face of allegations about what he called “shadowy contractors, dodgy money transfers, forged certification, inferior equipment and sweetheart deals”.
For its part, the government said that it was investigating the complaints. The Central Vigilance Commissioner, Pratyush Sinha, advised that all construction work for the Games was being examined, following reports of large-scale corruption. Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, a former sports minister, declared the money would have been better spent by providing sports training for Indian children.
In April, a bomb attack at a cricket match in Bangalore injured 14 people, raising security concerns for spectators and the athletes at what will be India’s largest sporting event — apart from cricket — since the Asian Games in 1982.
New Zealand officials acknowledged the potential danger, saying the country’s 195 athletes and 100 officials would be travelling to a “high-threat environment”. Security is the chief priority for the New Zealand Olympic Committee, which has so far intended to send the first Kiwi athletes to India at the end of September, provided security arrangements are adequate .
Security aside, there has been debate around the official estimates of spectators likely to attend, with Bangalore-based not-for-profit organisation Equations expressing concern for what has been seen as inflated visitor estimates resulting in ambitious infrastructure undertakings.
August brought news that the Army had been called on to help out with expenses, by drawing on the defence fund for the costs of stationing some 960 personnel at Games venues and of renovating its hostels to house 2500 artists performing in the opening ceremony.
“Financial mismanagement and self-interest have emerged as metabolic among those in charge of organising the Games” wrote Sidharth Pandey on the NDTV (New Delhi Television) website. “But this latest example bends even their record to a new low”.
Some difficulties, however, have been outside the control of officials. For example, unseasonably late monsoons have hampered attempts to keep to construction deadlines of several Games projects. The late rains have also damaged transport infrastructure, with more than 20 roads in the capital, including some newly built or upgraded, caving in under the deluge.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit remained upbeat, declaring that she was appealing to Lord Indra (the rain god) for the rain to stop so that everything would be ready in time. “By the grace of god, we will be able to finish everything by 3 October", she was quoted as saying.
According to the Dominion Post, Games' organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi is also hopeful the weather would improve. "Nature has been a little problem ... there have been many challenges and we face up to many challenges and things will work out very fine," Kalmadi said.
Only time will tell whether the 19th Commonwealth Games can shake off its bad press to become a fitting symbol of India’s rise to global prominence.
A Games Almanac
• The 19th Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in New Delhi on October 3-14 2010. Shera the Tiger is the official mascot.
• Athletes from 71 nations, mostly former British colonies, are to compete.
• The 17 sports to feature at the Games will be held in six venue clusters and five stand-alone venues, with a further 26 new venues and 16 upgraded ones to be used for training.
• The official budget to host the Games increased from an initial US$440 million in 2003 to US$2.2 billion, though unofficial estimates put the final figure at US$7.5 billion. By comparison, the price tag for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne was about US$1 billion.
- by Vaughan Yarwood