It is a matter of national shame that India cannot even put together a decent show for the Commonwealth Games. While every politician right from Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has expressed confidence that, as in the case of an Indian wedding, India will finally pull it off, the facts on the ground have always been very different. While there was some confusion with the media reporting that several officials of the Commonwealth Games Federation were happy with the level of progress made, this has finally been cleared.
The Federation has such little faith in India’s abilities to get the Games going, it has set up a monitoring panel to oversee the work being done. Instead of welcoming this, Suresh Kalmadi is making this a matter of national pride and has asked for CGF Chief Executive Mike Hooper’s resignation, accusing him of being an impediment.
For a country that has superpower dreams, this is quite sad. It is time this opened the government’s eyes to the monster it has created — a system that has so many layers of bureaucracy, it is not possible to get any work done or, indeed, hold anyone responsible for the mess. For months, all those involved in the preparation for the Games have chanted the same mantra of lack of autonomy — if a Congress government in the state of Delhi cannot get empowerment from a Congress government at the centre, imagine how bad things will be in Opposition-ruled areas?
Uday Gupta, Gurgaon