OCCASIONAL PAPER

CWG: Lessons in governance

MANOJ PANT 

    BY THE time this article appears in print, the CWG will be over. Thankfully so for many
Delhiites, who found their lives completely disrupted for almost one month of traffic
restrictions and unwarranted city shutdowns. Worse of all, for some reason, the last day of the
games was declared a public holiday although the games are being held only in Delhi. The
justification? Security. This is logical. If one could close down the country for some time and
declare Sec 144 everywhere, it is certain that incidents of terrorism would be limited. As
logical as closing down a national university and all schools in the capital because the CWG
needed their facilities. Last heard, the main demand seems to be for the bus drivers of these
schools but most of them have already taken off for their enforced vacation. As the media has
already successfully said all that there is to say about the CWG, I will try to see what lessons
are to be learnt from the point of view of governance in general. 
    Lesson 1 — the problem is leadership: Some TV channels seem to have personalised the
issue by concentrating on Mr Suresh Kalmadi and what he did or did not do. Even more
ludicrous, the focus then shifted to the secretary-general of the CWG, who has been seriously
afflicted with a ‘foot in the mouth’ disease. Whether it is the organisation of the stadia, choice
of volunteers or sale of tickets, it is clear that had the government chosen any random
individual to head the organising committee (OC), he or she could not possibly have done a
worse job. But you cannot get leadership and competence out of those who have never
demonstrated any organisational abilities. Yet, very little discussion has focused on who, in
2004, thought it fit to hand over the task of organising these games to such incompetent
individuals and who should actually be held responsible for the poor performance of Mr
Kalmadi and his cohorts. 
    Lesson 2 — failure of governance: Between the Delhi government, the sports ministry
and the OC, it was clear that none was willing to own up responsibility for non-completion of
projects. This is like a typical government project where there are so many signatories from
different ministries that one cannot say who took the final decision. But the CWG had to be
viewed as an event management exercise which is not in the domain of government
competence. As a comparison with the 1982 Asian Games makes clear, the multiplicity of
authorities was a major cause of the breakdown in organisation of the CWG. 
    Lesson 3 — foreign investors’ perception will be unaffected:Some media reports
seemed to imply that the handling of the games might affect investor perception. This view
was also supported by some in the government who felt that it was imperative that the games
‘be held at all cost’ to maintain India’s integrity as an investment destination. Nothing could
be further from the truth. India’s success as an investment destination has more to do with
growth rates and the recessionary woes of the OECD countries than with the organisational
abilities of Mr Kalmadi or the government. 
    Lesson 4 — the problem is not corruption: 
The exposure started with revelations from an innocuous Indian gentlemen in London and his
links to equally innocuous members of the OC. The media then went to town about the
problem of corruption in government contracts. As young people today would say, ‘get a
life!’. Look at developed countries like the US or Japan or ‘fairly developed’ countries like
South Korea: kickbacks in high-level government contracts is common to all democracies.
They also exist in communist countries, but are not publicly visible. The real problem with
the CWG was the failure to deliver on facilities even after the corruption. But then, what else
can one expect when the OC is headed by a politically defunct Congressman. Is he expected
to keep other active politicians at bay? Did one seriously expect Mr Kalmadi to have control
over thousands of crores of public money? 
    Lesson 5 — bidding for the Olympic Games: 
For once, this writer agrees with Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, but for different reasons. The
mandated autonomy of the IOA implies that Mr Kalmadi will again be in charge. Forget other
reasons, that will guarantee that the games cannot (and should not) be given to India; so, why
waste time over this issue? 
    The bottomline? The snafus that accompanied the CWG are a classic example of failure of
governance. More specifically, a failure of institutions. The IOA is an institutions best viewed
as a sinecure for discarded politicians and not one which has any expertise in event
management. Till such times as institutions of governance are established in sports
management, CWGtype fiascos are bound to recur. While the obsession with cricket is
probably unwarranted, its organisational systems need emulation by other sports bodies.

One cannot expect to get leadership and competence out of those who have never
demonstrated any organisational abilities 
Multiplicity of authorities, with no one willing to take the responsibility, was a major flaw in
the organisation of CWG 
Kickbacks take place almost everywhere in the world, but the CWG exposed the failure to
deliver even after corruption

India create Games history by finishing second in medals

tally

    THE country’s competitors came out with flying colours and helped India finish a historic
second in the final pecking order with more than 100 medals as the Commonwealth Games,
that had a troubled build-up but proceeded smoothly thereafter, came to a close today. 
    A record medal haul of 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals, the best-ever harvest for
the country in the Games history, helped India climb to the record-high second position and
end the multi-discipline event on a thumping note. 
    The main haul of these 101 medals came from the shooting range, wrestling mat, boxing
ring, archery range and, to everyone’s surprise, the track and field events, to provide the
country with a reasonably strong sports foundation on which to build a more powerful edifice
on. 
    The country had several highs and a number of sports heroes and heroines in the 12-day
sports festival that commenced with a spectacular opening ceremony on October 3. 
    There was the rifle-shooting ace Gagan Narang, the Hyderabadi, who scooped up four gold
medals but could not achieve the feat of overhauling five-gold hero of the 2006 Melbourne
Games - “Goldfinger” Samresh Jung. 
    There was the teenage woman archer Deepika Kumari, daughter of an auto-rickshaw
driver, who held her nerves even as the more seasoned Dola Banerjee wilted, to come up with
a golden double in the women’s recurve event. 
    The track and field events witnessed India’s first gold medal in 52 years when Krishna
Poonia led a clean sweep of the women’s discus throw, Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil
winning the silver and bronze. 
    Later the women’s 4x400m relay squad also struck an unexpected gold with a superb
display that pushed Nigeria and England to second and third places. 
    Just when the titles seemed to be drying up at the end, the women shuttlers, led by this
year’s Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardee Saina Nehwal, brought down two gold medals to
bring down the curtains on the country’s competitive show with a bang. 
    Those two gold medals in badminton were vital to help India push England to the third
place by the skin of their teeth, India’s gold tally becoming 38 on the last day after they
trailed their rivals going into the final day today. 
    The men’s hockey team, whose fortunes are followed closely by the sports fans of the
country, made history by making it to the final for the first time before coming a cropper
against world and defending champions Australia in today’s summit clash. 
    The 8-0 defeat was huge and one of the biggest suffered by the country, but the positives
were the stirring displays put up against Pakistan and England, against whom the squad
fought back from 1-3 down to win the semi final via the penalty shoot-out. 
    On the organisational front, after the shambolic build-up that included a dirty athletes
village and other shortcomings leading to threats of pull-out by leading competing nations,
the Commonwealth Games was on Thursday given a pat on the back by CGF chief Michael
Fennell in his concluding media conference. 
    “Delhi has performed and the overall image of the Games has been extremely positive”,
declared Commonwealth Games Federation chief Fennell on the last day of the multi-
discipline event. 
    “Leading up to the Games, people were not sure whether to go to India or not after all
those reports (about the less than perfect build-up) came out. When I was going to India on
September 23, I was even asked when would I announce the cancellation of the Games,”
Fennell told a press conference. 
    “I said our job is to fix the problems and not to give up. I had said in a press conference at
that time (before the Games) when asked whether there was Plan B and I said Plan B is
Delhi. It was always Delhi and Delhi has performed,” Fennell said. 
    But there were a lot of shortcomings - especially relating to sale of tickets, transport of
athletes, officials and media and the Games info system that crashed totally and showed signs
of getting back on track only towards the end. 
    The last-hour scramble to complete the infrastructure for the Games, including the village,
led to less-than-perfect conditions that were expectedly criticised by several quarters before
things were brought on track by the government authorities. 
    A lot of lessons need to be learned after the conduct of such a complex multi-discipline
extravaganza by the organisers if India’s dream of hosting an Olympic Games in the future is
to bear fruit. 
    In the action-packed sports arena, it was a foregone conclusion that Indian shooters were
the competitors to beat at the range and this proved correct though in the ultimate analysis the
overall figures could have been a little better, especially in the gold stakes. 
    Narang missed two gold medals in his least favourite event, the 50m prone, where he
ended outside the medal bracket. 
    He had captured the 10m air rifle pairs with Beijing Olympic gold medallist Abhinav
Bindra and then upset his teammate for the individual title. He claimed two more gold in 50m
3-position. 
    The hosts won 30 shooting medals including 14 gold, 11 silver and five bronze medals in
the Games. Of those, only three came from the shotgun range. 
    If Indian marksmen were the primary contributors to country’s rich medal haul the
wrestling contingent were not far behind winning 19 medals in the 21 designated event.
Among the 19 medals, there were 10 gold, five silver and four bronze medals. 
    If Sushil Kumar literally walked his way to gold, the women wrestlers participating in the
Games for the first time stole the show with a memorable performance. 
    In the six events for women, India won three gold, two silver and a bronze medal to show
their supremacy in the freestyle category. 
    The trio of Alka Tomar, Geeta and Anita won their final bouts with ease, while Babita
Kumari and Nirmala Devi missed out on yellow metal losing their final rounds but their
performance drew praise from none other than superstar of Indian wrestling -Sushil. 
    “I am very happy for the girls’ performance. I hope they would keep up the good work,”
Sushil said. 
    India achieved unprecedented success in athletics by bagging 12 medals, including two
gold, but a dope flunk took away some of the sheen off the glorious feat in the Games. 
    India’s 12 medals which came from athletics here were two more than the number it won
in all the earlier editions. 
    Just as the Indians basked in the glory of their track and field success, a rude shock hit
them with woman 20km race walker Rani Yadav flunking a dope test for a banned steroid. 
    She was provisionally suspended and her ‘B’ sample called for confirmatory test. 
    Two other athletes, Nigerians Osayemi Oludamola and Samuel Okon tested positive for
banned stimulant Methylhexaneamine. Women’s 100m gold winner was stripped of her
medal while Okon finished outside the medal bracket. These were the only positive dope
cases in the Games till the final day. 
    Krishna Poonia created history by breaking India’s 52-year-old Commonwealth Games
gold medal jinx by winning the yellow metal in women’s discus throw with the event also
setting a record of first with the country sweeping all the medals. 
    Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil bagged silver and bronze respectively. 
    Poonia also became the first Indian woman to bag a Commonwealth Games gold after
‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh won the men’s 440 yards race in 1958 edition in Cardiff, Wales. 
    The women’s 4X400m relay team of Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose, Ashwini Akkunji and
Mandeep Kaur added another gold in a memorable race, beating strong teams likes Nigeria
and England. 
    It was a 25-year-old girl from a poor family at a non-descript village at Nashik district in
Maharashtra who opened the medal floodgates for India by winning a bronze in women’s
10,000m race and she later said she took to athletics as she can run barefooted. 
    Fancied fisticuff exponents Vijender Singh and Akhil Kumar were ousted early but Indian
boxers still delivered a historic golden punch to come up with their best-ever campaign in the
Games history. 
    With a hat-trick of gold plus four bronze medals, the Indian ring stylists recorded their best
medal haul at the quadrennial multi-discipline sports event, bettering the 2006 campaign at
Melbourne by two. 
    The three titles - won through Suranjoy Singh (52kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Paramjeet
Samota (+91kg) — are unprecedented for India, for whom previously only Mohd Ali Qamar
(2002) and Akhil Kumar (Melbourne, 56kg) had finished on top. 
    The four bronze medals were won by Amandeep Singh (49kg), Jai Bhagwan (60kg),
Dilbag Singh (69kg) and Vijender Singh (75kg). 
    The biggest disappointment came from Olympic and World Championship bronze
medallist Vijender, the pre-event favourite, who had to settle for third place after losing
controversially to eventual silver-medallist Anthony Ogogo of England due to the warnings
he got during the semi final bout. 
    The other setbacks suffered by India were the defeats of Commonwealth championship
gold-medallist Dinesh Kumar and defending bantamweight (56kg) champion Akhil in the
quarterfinals. 
    The unexpected ouster of these big names before the finals had raised doubts about
whether the boxers would be able to live up to the expectations of the nation following the
success they have enjoyed since the Beijing Olympics. 
    But all doubts were erased when Suranjoy, Manoj and Samota combined forces to deliver
the historic ‘trick last night. 
    Among the trio, Manoj was, arguably, the find of the event as he was competing in the
biggest event of his career after being sidelined with a wrist injury for two years. Similar was
the case of Samota, the shy-22-year-old, who won a gold at the Commonwealth
Championships in March. 
    The two quietly went about their job even as Suranjoy stamped his class and justified his
nickname ‘Chhota Tyson’ with one powerpacked performance after another. 
    The trio’s remarkable show wiped out the lows experienced following the defeats of Akhil,
Vijender and Dinesh. —PTI
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Kalmadi points finger at Sheila Dikshit

Our Political Bureau NEW DELHI 

    THE probe into irregularities in organising of the Commonwealth Games has

unleashed a blame game with Delhi chief minister Shiela Dikshit and Suresh
Kalmadi pointing fingers at each other. 
    A day after Ms Dikshit sought to paint Mr Kalmadi as the villain of the piece,
the chairman of the organising committee hit back saying that bulk of the games
money was spent by the Delhi government. “We have already welcomed the prime
minister’s decision to set up a probe panel and have said that we will support it.
We are sure that the terms of reference of the Shunglu committee will include
not just the scope of work undertaken by the organising committee at a budget of
Rs 1,620 crore but also the Rs 16,000 crore spent by Delhi government,” Mr
Kalmadi told reporters. Mr Kalmadi’s way of saying that the Dikshit government
was ten times more responsible for the games mess. 
    On Saturday, Ms Dikshit had has hinted at corruption in the organising
committee. She had said that the ways of the organising committee were
mysterious. Mr Kalmadi hit back and described the statement as disappointing.
“Delhi chief minister’s aspersions on corruption in the organising committee are
most disappointing and uncalled for. It is not right to deflect and point fingers at
others when she must indulge in self-reflection on corruption in her own
departments,” Mr Kalmadi said. 
    Mr Kalmadi also told reporters that he would not remain silent on the attack
against him. “Despite a series of attacks in the run up to the Games, I was quiet as I
wanted the Games to succeed. Keeping quiet should not be interpreted as a sign of
weakness. Nor should patience be seen as a sign of guilt. It was more important to
focus on the task of conducting the Games well,” he said. “On Dussehra day, I owe
it to the organising committee that we speak out. We don’t want to be the
scapegoats anymore,” he added. 
    Mr Kalmadi said that it was strange that the organising committee was being
criticised for delays and shoddy work when it was involved in any construction
activity. “Unmindful, we kept defending the venues and infrastructure and
reassured the Games family that everything would be ready in time for the
Games.” 
    He also said that most embarrassing developments were on account of other
agencies. “When the foot overbridge near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium collapsed,
it led to doubts about the safety of the people. Reports of delays in getting the city
ready also caused many teams to believe that Games could not be held. We had to
do a lot of hand-holding and cajoling to ensure that the full complement of 71
nations and territories took part in the Games.” 
    In his interaction with the media, Mr Kalmadi also hinted that the Prime
Minister’s Office cannot wash its hands off the responsibilities. “We would like to
point out that all decisions in the organising committee are made by the executive
board, which includes two representatives each of the central and Delhi
governments. The Prime Minister’s Office deputed a number of government
officers, including CEO Jarnail Singh to work with the organising committee,” he
said. 
    Mr Kalmadi met urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy a day before the
first meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) on the Games after they have
concluded. 
    Mr Reddy, who heads the GoM, said Mr Kalmadi called on him over the
meeting. “There is a GoM meeting tomorrow (Monday). He met me in that regard.