Seven years and over seventy thousand crore rupees after the 19th edition of the Commonwealth Games were first awarded to India, it is time to set the scandals, withdrawals, delays and organisational glitches to one side and celebrate what is certain to be the biggest ever gathering under the flag of the Commonwealth starting
with Sunday’s opening ceremony. It has been a long and rocky road, the later stages of which was marked by extreme unpleasantness for India as an emerging nation thanks to the tardy and haphazard preparations that in some cases are still in progress. With mere hours to go before the first of some 6,500 athletes and sportspersons representing 71 nations and territories walk into the refurbished Nehru Stadium, much of the country will have its fingers crossed and a prayer on its lips hoping there are no further glitches and embarrassments of the sort that emerged with clockwork regularity over the last six months and more. Many of the arriving participants too had a rough introduction to these Games in the form of poor, unfinished or dirty occupation but, to their credit, it is these very same teams that first stood up to say that all was not as bad as first made out, and that in the end all would be well. That, for certain, is what Messrs Suresh Kalmadi and Co. will be hoping for. They have presided over a controversial runup to this quadrennial event, overspent the original budget estimate by a hundred times and more, succeeded in making India look like something of a joke in many eyes. A Games that provides quality not just in competition but also in organisational matters, logistics and overall smooth running will go some way in erasing that image, and in a sense, the opening ceremony could set the tone for that re-jigging of worldwide perception.
In the days and hours since the unpalatable pictures of the Games Village first flashed around the world, government officials have worked tirelessly to set things on some sort of even keel and get a good face on things, starting with the athletes’ accommodation. A number of problems remain, but if the resolve shown under the hammer in these past few days are any indication, they will probably be tackled as and when they crop up. Among the notable firsts at the Delhi Games will be the introduction of para sports which will see contestants participate in 15 events spread across aquatics, athletics, power-lifting and table tennis — along the lines of similar competition pioneered by the Paralympic Games that have become an integral part of the Summer Olympics. Not only in terms of logistics, the additional onus of providing security in these dire times has been a massive challenge and one that the Indian state has promised to rise to. Delhi has already been turned into a fortress with its attendant problems for its citizenry, who had already been alienated by the clubby and closed manner in which preparations had proceeded these past few years. At the end of it all though, come October 14 and the end of the Games, and Delhi will emerge with the nucleus of an infrastructure that can help catapult it into the league of “global” cities. That will be the one big plus the city can walk away with, though it has paid a terrible price for the privilege. For the moment, though, all eyes will be on the swanked-up Nehru Stadium and the next 12 days of action and competition that the thundering of fireworks and the dazzle and sway of two thousand-plus dancers and drummers will herald.