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Lessons Learnt From Commonwealth Games 2010
Lessons Learnt From Commonwealth Games 2010
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 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.
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.
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