International BusinessDeserved rap on knuckles
Business Standard / New Delhi October 15, 2009, 0:37 IST
The many organisers of the 2010 Commonwealth Games have received a well deserved rap on the knuckles for the state of India"s (lack of) preparedness to host the Games a year from now. While the Commonwealth Games Federation has shied away from selecting an alternative venue, it has not left anyone in doubt that New Delhi has to work extra hard in the next 11 months to deliver what it has promised. All the media spin that the organisers had done, to suggest that the work done so far has been appreciated, has been exposed as hogwash. To make its displeasure clear, the Federation has said that an external oversight committee will henceforth supervise the remaining work to be done.
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Before getting shirty about this humiliating external interference, the organisers should concede the fact that many in the country have long sought such a ‘super’ body that could bring the multiplicity of players in line on a wide range of issues. In organising the Games, India allowed far too many centres of decision-making to emerge with no central authority that could get everyone in line. The comparison with the organisation of the 1982 Asian Games is instructive. At that time centralised command, with direct oversight by the Prime Minister of the time, and her son, ensured that all players remained in step. This time round, however, the various organisations involved in getting Delhi ready for the Games have not been functioning in tandem, because no one has been cracking the whip from above. Turf battles between the Delhi government, the Union sports ministry, the organising committee and the various authorities involved in putting up the required infrastructure have to a large extent delayed the work, and there has been no final ownership of the problem. In the event, it is the CGF that has had to step in and threaten the ignominy of a change of venue to force everyone to fall in line.
A senior official associated with the organisation of the Games assured this newspaper that the Games would in fact be conducted without any problem and Delhi would be ready on time, “but in the usual Indian way”! That, in a nutshell, has been the problem. Unlike the 1982 Asian Games, the 2010 Commonwealth Games have not acquired an iconic status. Beijing used the 2008 Olympics to make a statement to the world. New Delhi has so far not viewed the Commonwealth Games as a statement on anything, so the country risks damage to its brand value because comparisons with Beijing are inevitable. No one in Delhi views the event as representing something new that India can do, something special. Besides which, all the attention so far has been on the infrastructure, there has been almost no public focus on the athletes and what preparations are under way. How does India hope to perform at the Games? Who will be the country’s sporting icons? In what sporting disciplines do the hosts hope to dominate the Games? Or, will the country be content with a modern airport, better roads and a gala opening ceremony, and let other countries focus on the medals?