T N Ninan: 1951 redux

With only weeks to go before Commonwealth Games, construction deadlines have been missed, budgets have multiplied 10-fold and corruption is rampant

A sports extravaganza is supposed to be a “coming out” party for the host country. Tokyo hosted the Olympic Games in 1964, timing it with the introduction of that new wonder of the world, the Shinkansen (the “bullet trains”), to announce Japan’s rebirth from the ashes of 1945. Seoul, after three decades of rapid economic growth, hosted the Olympics in 1988 with the same objective, as did Beijing in 2008. All three countries also primed their athletes to bring in record hauls of medals, so that the statement to the rest of the world was made on the track and field too, not just in the act of playing host. In contrast, Athens hosted the 2004 Olympics, 108 years after it hosted the first of the modern Olympiads — but it was a last-minute mess. You could have predicted that a corruption-ridden, public sector-dominated, disorganised Greece was headed for the crisis that has now overtaken it.

India hosted the first Asian Games, held in 1951 over eight days with 11 participating countries. The Games had been scheduled for 1950, but postponed because (you guessed it!) the new National Stadium was not ready in time. Still, India came second in the medals tally, even bagging the football gold. The country hosted the Asiad again in 1982; this was a double-coming out party because Rajiv Gandhi as a debutant politician chose a successful organisation of the Asiad as his personal launch pad. In the event, the preparations were behind schedule and in the usual mess (incomplete flyovers, a stadium with suspect design specs, hotels meant for the Games not built, etc.); in desperation, the government turned to Jagmohan, who took charge and delivered what became a successful Games. Indira Gandhi told a relieved country that this meant that India could “do it”.

Now, 28 years later, it would seem that we still can’t “do it” properly. With only weeks to go before the curtains go up on the Commonwealth Games, all construction deadlines have been missed, budgets have multiplied an unbelievable 10-fold and more, and corruption is rampant. Far from a confident statement of national ability, the run-up to the Games testifies to the breakdown of the government system. If you want to understand why immunisation levels in the country have come down instead of going up, why Bangladesh is overtaking India on one social indicator after another, why 85 per cent of government programme money is mis-spent, and why Maoism is spreading, simply look at what has unfolded in broad daylight in the national Capital.

It may still fall into place at the last minute, as Sheila Dikshit has been promising for two years — as though that is how it is meant to be; and the event may yet pass off as smoothly as the 1982 Asiad did (the alternative is too horrific to imagine). Delhiites will get an expanded metro network as a present for having been subjected to a sustained civic mess, but they will also have to live with higher taxes to pay for the corruption and bloated budgets. The pity is that, as coming-out parties go, the Delhi Commonwealth Games will always be compared with the organisational efficiency of Beijing 2008. One positive fallout: China-India comparisons will be made less frequently at booster-ist Indian talk shops.

Half a century ago, Galbraith called India a “functioning anarchy”. Today the functioning part seems to be in the private sector, while anarchy typifies the government. And so, the Central Vigilance Commission and other hound dogs can be expected to provide plenty of post-Games sport; but it seems too much to hope that Suresh Kalmadi will not be seen or heard from again.