From Games falling apart to historic day, the media, both Indian and foreign, travelled a full length of rope, beginning from unbridled self-doubt to exultation. To put the matter straight, it was the administrators who brought the self-doubt to forth, while it was the Indian sports women and men who gave people to celebrate in the times of sombre. So, cheers to the sportsperson for saving the day for the nation, while an unbiased probe needs to be carried out against the culprits who brought the nation to the point of disaster.
A day after the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, Twitter was full of people calling for the heads to roll and they have reasons to say so. Much has been written about all such things. However, it is unbelievable to see the extent of bungling in the Games. Watching spectators at JLN stadium yesterday, my attention was drawn to a dalal kind of a man who was brandishing two VIP passes for the closing ceremony, which he wanted to sell in Rs 25,000. There were a large number of such people in and around the stadium. Not to be left behind were the bureaucrats who had access to end number of passes which they liberally distributed among their staff, relatives and even to the scribes close to them.
It's to be seen if an enquiry could dig out the statistics to let us know what was the percentage of passes printed against the tickets which were really sold from the counters. It's a fact that many enthusiasts could not go to the stadia to cheer for the Indian sportsperson for want of tickets. The Commonwealth Games website stated that the tickets were sold out, a fact which was repeated at various counters but the live telecast of the events showed that the stadia were not even 10 per cent occupied in most of the matches except for the final two days. The ticketing bungling in itself must have accounted for losses to the tune of about Rs 100 crores at least. Contrast this with the fact that the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee was given about Rs 2000 crores as grant from the Central government which was supposed to be earned through its income from the sales of tickets, advertisements and so on.
Most shameful act which was on display was the haste with which the chief minister Sheila Dikshit rushed in to take credit for cleaning the Games Village, which had come under intense criticism. This was against the fact that various agencies under the command of the Lt. Governor had toiled hard to clean the mess. One just could not help wondering that a politician of any stature could fall down to any level to gain popularity, while ignorant audience, read voters, easily believe such make-believe.
Much noise is being made that Delhi could now host the Olympics. It would be only a disaster. If at all India ever bids for Olympics, it should not be Delhi but some other cities, as the capital city just does not have enough space to accommodate huge number of athletes, delegates and tourists that Olympics brings to any city.
