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Shame Of A Nation

Unlike China, which showcased its economic and organizational prowess on the global stage by pulling off a spectacular Olympics, India was internationally humiliated by the ineptness and chaos that engulfed the Commonwealth Games.

By Achal Mehra November 9, 2010 at 4:37 AM

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Several investigations are currently underway by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) into allegations of corruption and mismanagement at the just concluded 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has additionally ordered a special inquiry led by India’s former Comptroller and Auditor General VK Shunglu, which has been directed to produce its report by March of next year. The opposition BJP has demanded a joint parliamentary inquiry as well.

These investigations come after widespread international media coverage of the malfeasance, construction delays, sub-standard work and unsanitary conditions in the athletic village in the run up to the Games. As we report and visually document extensively in this issue, the shoddy and make-shift work that was masked behind veneer and vinyl drapes is now in plain view.

Unlike China, which leveraged the 2008 Olympic Games to showcase its economic and organizational prowess on the global stage by pulling off a spectacular — by some measure the best ever — Olympics, India stood internationally humiliated by the ineptness and chaos that engulfed the Games. Commonwealth officials even weighed cancelling the event, a handful of countries threatened a boycott and several prominent athletes pulled out. In the end, spectacular opening and closing ceremonies muted the criticism, although Organizing Committee Chairman Suresh Kamladi was roundly jeered every time he spoke at the Games. For the most part, the band-aids held together just long enough for the 10-day event.

The sheer arrogance and tone-deafness of the bungling officials was epitomized by the Organizing Committee’s Secretary General Lalit Bhanot, who ridiculed media reports exposing filthy and unsanitary conditions in the athletes’ apartments with the dismissive remark: “Their (Western) standards of hygiene and cleanliness could be different from ours, so there is nothing to be ashamed about it.”

There is much to be ashamed about and we hope that even though the media spotlight has moved on, the pursuit of those responsible for the corruption and mismanagement will continue unabated.

According to media reports, the CVC, the central Indian anti-corruption agency, estimates that over $1 billion — as much as a third of the $3.1 billion worth of projects it has examined — has been misappropriated. Among the outrageous rip-offs: $85 tissue rolls, $1,500 patio tables with umbrellas, rentals of golf carts at a cost greater than the purchase price of the carts, ad nauseam. We will have to await the Shunglu report to get a full measure of the public theft of the $6 billion spent on the Games. Equally tragically, the poorly built infrastructure is already crumbling, as the images in our article reveal. And the opportunity to develop a permanent legacy and leverage the multi-billion investment for growth and development has been permanently lost. India can surely abandon any aspirations for biding for the Olympic Games (for which the Commonwealth Games were intended as a trial run) for atleast another generation.

Meanwhile, let’s begin to regroup, by giving the likes of Kamladi and Bhanot a clean and sprightly prison cell, which will underscore to them the virtues of both hygiene and public integrity.

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