LESSONS LEARNT FROM

COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2010

Hosting the Commonwealth Games was supposed to be a signal to the world that
India had, to use a clichéd term, come of age. An event to demonstrate India’s rising
clout and maturity; an event way less brutal that the whipping that some African tribals
follow to signify coming-of-age. Well, in some ways, this coming-of-age ritual has
brought similar injuries to India’s self-esteem and pride. The rampant corruption
highlighted rather gleefully by western media has brought Indian dreams crashing down
to earth and has disappointed its myriad citizens. Its citizens hoped for a show equaling in
grandeur the Beijing Olympics and perhaps drew several parallels between the two
sporting events held in the two rising countries. The Beijing Olympics was however a
shining success, with the only blotch being the war between Russia and Georgia taking
away some of the attention from it. However, the Commonwealth Games did not attain
that measure of success; though it was not a failure by any means. There is an old Latin
proverb. “Exita acta probat”. Its English translation means, “The end determines the act”.
In that way, the Commonwealth Games was quite successful in anyone’s eyes.

A slew of accusations and allegations of corruption directed at the head of the

CWG Organizing Committee Chairman, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, amongst others, have
caused many eyebrows to go up. Eyebrows are not the only facial hair to go up. Hair-
raising stories of corruption are being unraveled even as we speak. The ghost of CWG
corruption scams will haunt the dreams of those involved; or so it is hoped. However,
that can and probably will be quite tricky. The ‘scamsters’ are probably adept in hiding
their tracks. And have done so with much aplomb in the intervening time. However, they
may still be caught by vigilant officials.

A wise man once said, “Prevention is better than cure”. Well, it’s not for nothing
that the aforementioned man was called wise. This quote has a lot of merit, even though
most do not seem to follow it, or even think about it. So instead of finding ourselves in all
that muck, we should have done every thing we could to avoid falling into it. One of the
sad, unavoidable, regrettable truths of Indian polity is the heavy magnitude of corruption
that literally haunts and dogs our lives. Corruption has only one cure. Only one. Fatal
diseases usually are tough to cure, you see. Well, this cure is a twelve–letter word.
Transparency. A transparent organization will never become corrupt. Every movement
will be scrutinized by the public and in a country like India, with so many people calling
themselves as India’s public, any discrepancy or incongruity will surely and swiftly be
noticed and eliminated. Sheer numbers you see.

We have to realize that we have to make all organizations especially pertaining to

the government, transparency will have to be present, otherwise our ‘netas’ and ‘babus’
will invariably go astray. Greed is quite a powerful deterrent you see. A commission will
also have to be set up in order to oversee whether corruption is taking place in each
organization. Perhaps, a branch of that organization itself will be ideal. Also, steps will
have to be taken to ensure that this branch itself does not become corrupt with time;
otherwise we just will have added another organization that can become corrupt! Rotten
apples will have to be somewhat ruthlessly cut and thrown away. We all know that one
rotten apple spoils the whole barrel. In this age of many rotten apples, we should take
care that the good ones do not get spoilt too. Sounds like the new Mission Impossible
film, right?

One of the major questions that remain unanswered is why India opted to host
the Commonwealth Games when there a plethora of people all over the country who lack
for even the basic necessities of food, water, clothing and housing. It should be the
foremost priority of the Indian Government to cater to the needs of these people rather
than try to increase India’s pride by hosting such large events. That can come later,
because it is not a necessity. In the end India should look more for the welfare of its
people.

One very noticeable thing in the organization of the Commonwealth Games 2010
was that the organizers kept every thing to the end. Just fifty days before the starting
ceremony of the games, the Games village and other infrastructure was in tatters. The
media was wondering aloud, justifiably, whether the Games would be held at all. It was a
close-run thing, but in the end, the Commonwealth Games, apart from the corruption
allegations was a success. There were reports of roofs leaking, bridges falling and so on,
but in the end, things were all right. This last-minute work should be avoided. We see it
all around us, in schools and colleges students struggling to complete their projects at the
last minute; and even in jobs, people struggling to complete their reports and other
projects, but the Government of India is supposed to be a responsible entity, with the
lives of unnamed hundreds of millions, nay billions depending on it and must finish the
job quickly to avoid any last-minute hiccups. Here it is not the fact that the Games were
held that is to be seen, rather, in what fashion the Games were held.

The opening the closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games highlighted to

the world the organizing capabilities of Indians. In the end, the medals gained by Indians
pointed to the emergence of India as a sporting nation to be reckoned with. Our
sportsmen and sportswomen made our country proud. Finishing second, ahead of Britain
in the Commonwealth Games is quite a remarkable achievement indeed. Winning over a
hundred medals, including thirty-eight gold ones is no mean feat. However, one thing that
we have to take note of is this. Australia, with a population of around twenty million,
won one hundred and seventy seven medals. Seventy four of them were gold. On the
other hand, India with a population of more than a billion, in fact more than a billion
more than Australia’s population, won much less. For this to change, the Indian
Government will have to find proactive methods to improve sporting infrastructure in
India, thus giving its children more chances to shine. Talent is already present. India has
proved it time and again in the past. We only have to convert that into results; and that is
where the Indian Government must step in. China has managed to do so and thus was
able to finish at the top of the standings in the medals tally in the Beijing Olympics.
Lessons have to be learnt here.

PRATHEEK PRAVEEN KUMAR

prytheek@yahoo.com