HSBC Bank
First things first, I think the games should not have been organised in the first place. There is absolutely no explanation (financial, political, social or otherwise) for India to host CWG or any sort of an international sporting event altogether. Neither am I talking about the delay nor the corruption. Neither the International Shame that has been bestowed upon us by the dog poo in the apartment Nor the falling Foot Over Bridges. I am just asking a simple question about Priorities. Why did we have to organise these Games?
If we are trying to promote a 'sporting' culture and 'healthy living' then can anybody tell me how many Delhiites have actually visited Indira Gandhi, National, Jawahar Lal or any other stadium in the past 10 years? If you want people to take up sports, then build small sports complexes all over the city, where people can play with their families, kids can take tennis/swimming lessons and we may have a healthier/sportier generation to follow.
If we wanted to 'show the world' that we had the caliber to pull off a 'Beijing'. Who are we trying to show off to? The commonwealth nations are British ex-colonies most of which (economics wise) do not have anything to boast of anyways. Only Canada and UK have a GDP higher than us. What would it serve to host events for countries to show off our prowess to, who anyways are struggling for their economic existence? If you have money to spend, then send that money to the African nations where people are fighting AIDS and actually need that money to save those lives.
If we wanted to build better infrastructure for the urban city dwellers, then did we have to organise this 'show off' for 15 days and spend billions earned by the tax payer (especially when majority of tax receipts comes not from the builders/contractors/businessmen who don't file their tax returns but from a freaking salaried guy who gets his salary in his bank account and the Tax is already deducted at source, lest he indulges in any tax evasion)? Why not make things better for THAT guy? As a representative of THAT guy and being an 'urban delhiite', I care more about 15 mins reduction in my travel time to work and back without any traffic jams rather than a freaking stadium eating up energy in those floodlights which will be used for 15 days. When the whole locality is sitting in dark, because THEIR electricity has been provided to that stadium nearby, which they will never be able to even enter if they wanted to.
Let's get real guys. The fact is: we are laggards in almost every sport in the world. The only game we play or are 'really' bothered about is cricket. A game that is played by 10 nations in the world, 5 of them in South Asia where more than 60%(I guess) population lives in rural areas. How many of us would actually know who won the maximum number of golds in last CWG or who is the world champion in Discuss Throw, Shotput, Long Jump, High Jump, Badminton, Archery etc.
There is no shame, but just that we are not bothered about these sports (as of yet). So what do we do? Do we just ignore the people who play these games in India? Absolutely not! But have we organized CWG for THEM or in belief, that people will start participating in these games, once they have seen these sports themselves in stadiums? I don't think so. Give the hockey team players the money that is promised to them, so that the millions of children who were thinking of joining the game, do not turn away thinking 'Khana kahaan se khaunga?' If you actually care about these sports/sports persons then give the bloody money to the sports authorities/bodies for training/coaches/nutrition and build up a redressal mechanism so that you have means to 'know' if the money is actually reaching them.
Also, for all those who are thinking that the delay has been caused due to babugiri or red tapism. Think again. If we sleep for 4 years after the games are allotted to us and start working at the 11th hour, as I see it, I believe its all intentional. The delay was not caused because we are lazy, but because we wanted it to get delayed. Panic infuses a sense of 'Lets just get it done at ANY cost'. When you stop bothering about the price, you just want to get it done. May be that can explain the high prices at which materials/equipment was sourced. But hey, I don't even want to talk about the corruption in this post. Even if you forget the corruption/international shame due to delays etc for one bit, where does it make sense to build these stadiums in the first place.
For the 'urban' types who are singing song of 'Infrastructural Developments' DUE to CWG. I ask this. What if the CWG was not to be organised in Delhi. Would the government waited till the olympics to provide us with the Delhi Metro or the flyovers or better roads or better lighting etc etc. Are these happening only because CWG are being organised in Delhi? If your answer is no, then why organise it? If you are nodding, then its a shameful situation that we need to have an international gaming events and the 'sharam' that tourists will come and see our city as being dirty, so let's clean up and build some roads.
We are a country where 60% population doesn't have proper access to food, electricity, water, irrigation, roads, transport and infrastructure and we decide to spend all of 30,000 Crores on building stadiums and purchasing toilet paper for Rs 4000 per roll... What boost is this money going to give to the rural development in the country. How are these games going to change anything for the farmers/labourers committing suicides everyday? How are these going to do anything for anybody I dont understand?
For those, who are sharing pretty pictures of the 'world class stadiums' built for the CWG because we should concentrate on 'the positive' and rubbish the 'negativity' spread by the Indian media, I have a question. Why the hell media shouldn't? Isn't this what the media is for? Its not a makeup artist who would hide your acne through thick layers of make up. Its their job to show what's hidden? Who would have known of this corruption, if the media hadn't shown? Would the PM had intervened if it was reported that its all 'hunky dory' and India is 'shining'.
For those who have this 'chalo yaar, ho gaya jo hona tha, ab kam se kam duniya ko toh apna gandh na dikhao' attitude and are 'proud' of the fact that we are hosting the games. I think this is why we suffer. If a kid steals and the mom-dad hide him, he will do it again. I hope the 'kids' running our government bodies learn their lesson through this negative publicity and think thousand times before organising olympics in the next 100 years.
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