Much in life depends on something called timing. Good decisions can sometimes turn bad, or vice versa, depending on when they are taken, and in what circumstances. Someone should have reminded the Indian Olympic Association, its president Suresh Kalmadi and his cohorts who egg him on to higher and bigger doings about this basic truth about life. Even as a welter of skeletons continue to tumble out of the 2010 Commonwealth Games cupboard regarding every imaginable aspect of the event, the IOA went ahead and submitted a bid for the 2019 Asian Games. While March this year was the original deadline for submission of bids to the Olympic Council of Asia, it was pushed back to the end of June and 10 cities — including New Delhi, which hosted the first Asiad in 1951, and thereafter in 1982 — were reported to be in the race. The usual practice — given the vast scale of infrastructure and logistical upgrades required — is for the concerned National Olympic Committee to inform its government about its intention to place such a bid. But, as the snowballing controversy surrounding the coming CWG here this October clearly indicates, Mr Kalmadi operates in a zone of his own. And as details continue to emerge on an almost hourly basis about shoddy infrastructure, inflated contracts, incomplete deals and leaking venues for the Commonwealth Games comes the news that the Government of India, at least, was not in the loop when it came to deciding on the 2019 Asiad bid. In fact, the Union sports ministry has gone a step further and said that this was not the sort of decision to be taken casually, and that consultation of several stakeholders like the government and its many arms who would play key roles in any such eventuality, was a minimum consideration. None of that, obviously, was thought necessary by the IOA and its bosses who have become used to first making commitments, and thereafter falling back on all and sundry to make sure that those promises are honoured.
As the Commonwealth Games stumble from one fiasco to another, the increasingly shrill call is that of national pride and the need to pull together, not work as cross-purposes. This is something the IOA chief should first answer himself, but he has all of a sudden vanished from public view, leaving his lieutenants to grapple with the storm of accusations and allegations, many of which are being defended on increasingly flimsy grounds. The public, too, has woken up to the fact that it is paying for what is potentially a huge shambles — warnings about which have long been aired and by those who are in the business. None of them were paid any heed to, people appointed to oversee preparations by a concerned global federation systematically sidelined and every best practice that has been learned over years of experience thrown into the dustbin. The result is there for all to see — and to pay for. To this day, with deadline after deadline having expired, agencies continue to work at cross-purposes — and each act escalates the overall bill bit by bit. There has to be a reckoning for all of this, but instead the public is being asked — in the name of national honour — to grin and bear it. And by way of increased taxes and levies, to even pay for the mayhem. Incidentally, Mr Kalmadi’s ambitions are far above a mere Asian Games! He wants to bring the Olympic Games to India as well. An opinion poll today will suggest that he is probably in a very small minority which wants that headache as well.