The XIXth Commonwealth Games has been recently concluded in our capital city of Delhi, leaving behind a bunch of ulterior issues to ponder upon. Overcoming the terrible uncertainty, security hiccups, infra-failure and management glitches that shrouded the mega-event a week before its commencement, the Indian Govt. along with its concerned CWG authorities did a great job in somehow Jugaading the whole event. Kudos to our national sportsmen who placed us ahead of England grabbing the second position in the table (other than shooting, boxing and wrestling we had gold in Discuss, badminton and TT proving that we are improving in other arenas too!)
But at the end if you try to quest for the fact that who have gained the most from the event- is it the Delhites (who have endured the heavy pollution, traffic snags, the falling pillars and caving roads but got a break from their hectic schedules!), the National sports system (who have at least got a couple of stadiums for nurturing the athletes, though not the durable ones!) or the bureaucrats and builders (who made mad budgets and false promises and have siphoned the national money to swell up their personal bank accounts)? The answer is before you!
Counting on India as a brand, we have failed to a great extent. For a poor country to overhear the cries and necessities of its citizens and blow away a whopping `70,000 crores just to augment itself as a brand on the international platform, the act is undoubtedly not justified! Furthermore, we first tainted ourselves by the outburst of widespread corruption charges, nepotism, bureaucratic delays and mis-management both in the national as well as international media. And in the post-games scenario we have been just able to replenish or in better words “cover-up” the derogation caused before! We must have improved ourselves on the corruption charts but not at least as a brand.
If we really want to show the world that we are a transformed country and a neo-dynamic “India”- we need a serious self-introspection and need to penalize the bureaucrats and the organizers ( humare paise bhi kha liye aur dakkar tak na liya!). If we have the highest corruption rates in the world, we are going to root it out of our system in lieu of getting used to it! Possessing a shortcoming is not a problem, but not rectifying it once you are aware of it is a vice.
Let us hope for the best, Jai Hind!!!
