Imagine his thoughts as he inspected the site for the Commonwealth Games.
Delhi had an important visitor in November. The Commonwealth Federation sent a team to examine Delhi’s preparedness for the all important Commonwealth Games — something which the Delhi government and the centre have been obsessed with for a while now — to be held in the capital in October 2010.
Put yourself in Mr Austin Sealy’s shoes (he headed the team) and try to imagine his plight. He must have arrived at the Delhi airport — which, like the rest of the city, looks more like one huge construction site than any kind of airport. Then, maybe he spent a night at one of the five star hotels in Delhi and was driven on one of the mornings to the site of the proposed games village. The village, which is being built next to the Delhi’s giant Akshardham temple and on the banks of the Yamuna river is expected to house about 8,500 athletes and officials during the games.
If he went early enough, he would have witnessed the morning ablutions in the river of a staggering number of individuals. His car must have weaved in and out of Delhi’s bursting-to-the-seams roads in what must have felt like an endless drive to the site before his eyes came to terms with the scenic sight of these individuals.
If indeed he could figure what it truly was — not in the Ganga’s league but undoubtedly one of India’s holiest rivers — he must have kept his thoughts to himself at the stench (630 million litres of untreated sewage enters the river every day) and the amazingly dirty grey colour of the river.
He may or may not admit it, but one can try and imagine the thoughts going through his mind as he arrived at the actual site. As the legal problems with the site and the consequences of the ensuing court case sunk in, he surely must have wondered which bright spark chose a place which is both an environmental hazard (the enviromentalists say that the grand river’s river bed is going to get damaged; the present state of the river has clearly missed them) and a religious hazard (the temple authorities don’t want the village to be higher than the temple, arguing that it’s some kind of sign of disrespect).
Although Mr Sealy merely expressed his “surprise”, it must have actually quite a shock to find out that the construction of new velodrome had not been started when there were less than two years left for the Games. One wonders if he knows that the tenders for that project are yet to be issued or realises the extent of the Indian bureaucrats’ pre-occupation and attachment to tenders.
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That surprise may well turn to disbelief when he learns that some of the visitors may end up sleeping in tents since the city is also short of hotel rooms. It is really none of his business that the village’s construction has been plagued by allegations that building contractors have not treated workers properly and that earlier this year there were reports of an outbreak of serious diseases in the crowded temporary camps built for labourers on the site.
But Mr Sealy seems to have underestimated Indian ingenuity, speed and the ability of manage (jugaad) in the most adverse of circumstances. He has gone so far as to insinuate that if things don’t progress quite rapidly, India could lose the right to host the games. So, in quite a bizarre turn of events, all of a sudden, there seems to be a lurking danger that the Commonwealth Games that the capital city has been endlessly preparing for may not after all take place here at all. We’ll only really know when Mr Sealy returns — if he returns — in March 2009.
For some odd reason and I’m sure at no one but her own behest, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit has “vowed” that Delhi will be ready for the Games. She says they have all the answers to the litigation and that the work had begun after getting all clearances. She sounded, going by press reports, unruffled.
Dixit’s valiant vow is backed by Dr Lalit Bhanot, secretary-general of the Games organising committee, who has really stuck his neck out and claimed that 90 per cent of the infrastructure for the Games would be finished by the end of 2009, 10 months before the opening ceremony ! “There is no delay as far as the construction is concerned, that’s for sure,” he told the press, without going into the details of what he really means.
The only outcome that will be worse than the Games being cancelled is if all the projects taken up in preparation are left as they are — in mid-flight so to say. In other words, Delhi and its citizens could well be asked to live with half a flyover somewhere, a metro rail line that’s going nowhere and maybe the headless arms of a proposed velodrome. Not to mention the money that would have been spent in vain. Then, the entire episode will seem like a very poor joke.