Less than seven weeks before
New Delhi is to host to the Commonwealth Games, venues are still under
construction, top officials have been forced out in scandal, costs have soared
and many are questioning the wisdom of spending so much money on an event in a
nation riddled with social ills.
To make matters worse, many
top athletes, including Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, pulled out and even Queen
Elizabeth II has said she won't come to the Games, which brings together the 71
countries of the Commonwealth, or former British Empire.
After China showcased its
economic clout during an impressive Beijing Olympics, India's Commonwealth
Games organizers were under pressure to deliver a comparable spectacle to
promote “India Rising.” Instead, the bungling of the preparations for this
second-tier sports event has highlighted the government corruption and malaise
that continues to plague the nation, said Harsh V. Pant, a political analyst.
“When it comes to
implementation, I don't think India has moved an inch from where we used to
be,” he said.
Hoping to stem the cascade of
problems, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped in last weekend, ordering a
corruption probe and appointing a group of Cabinet ministers to oversee the
final preparations and try to salvage the event.
The move came as criticism of
the Games, to be held in New Delhi from Oct. 3-14, reached fever pitch, with
everything from traffic jams to mosquito breeding blamed on preparations.
The Times of India newspaper
showed Shera, the Games' jaunty, cartoon tiger mascot, on a respirator, and a
former sports minister publicly hoped the Games would collapse in disarray so
India would not be tempted to bid for future events.
Delhi's chief minister,
Sheila Dikshit, called the broadsides “unpatriotic.” “I plead with people to
look at the better side of the Games — the rest will fall into place,” she told
The Sunday Express newspaper.
But the problems are hard to
ignore.
Venues that were supposed to
be completed last year to allow for test events, are still in what officials promise
is the final phase of construction.
Workers are still building
the corrugated tin roof at the new weightlifting arena, which partially
collapsed after springing a leak during recent monsoon rains.
The Shivaji stadium in
central Delhi, which is to be used as a practice field for hockey teams, has
been stripped down, its facade left with gaping holes as hundreds of workers
navigated large piles of red bricks, gray concrete blocks and rusting
reinforcing rods.
A 4-kilometer-long 4
(2.5-mile-long) road-bridge connecting the athletes village to the main stadium
has gaps in it.
“We have to accept where we
are and look forward,” said Mike Hooper, the CEO of the Commonwealth Games
Federation, who is in New Delhi helping oversee the preparations.
“Everyone's got a lot of work
to do, and that's what they've got to focus on.” Much of central Delhi remains
torn up by projects that had been intended to beautify the city for the 100,000
foreign tourists the Games committee had anticipated. Many of the projects are so
far behind schedule they are being covered up, to be worked on again after the
event.
And there are doubts the
tourists are even coming.
Hotels that expected to be
sold out have received only anemic bookings for the Games and regular tourists
seem to be deferring travel during what would usually be high season to avoid
the spectacle, said Rajindera Kumar, president of Federation of Hotel and amp;
Restaurant Associations of India.
“The response is so weak,” he
said. “I'm really fearing for the industry.” The cost of hosting the Games -
which the government initially pegged at less than $100 million in 2003 — has
skyrocketed, with estimates ranging from $3 billion to more than $10 billion.
A recent report by a
government watchdog said contractors were charging unreasonable rates,
producing shoddy work and fabricating tests to show the quality of their
construction was up to standards.
Meanwhile, ticket sales have
been delayed, sponsorships have not met expectations and over the weekend the
official merchandiser pulled out, saying delays in launching his products were
costing him unbearable losses. On Thursday, two power companies announced they
were canceling their multimillion dollar sponsorship deals with the event.
Three top officials were
fired this month over alleged financial irregularities with the London
launching of the Queen's Baton Relay — a monthslong odyssey akin to the Olympic
torch relay. That came a week after the organizing committee's treasurer
resigned amid accusations his son's firm was given a contract to help build the
tennis courts.
As part of a drive to clean
up the city ahead of the event, the government demolished thousands of slum
homes and arrested homeless people and beggars, according to a coalition of
human rights groups.
At the venue sites,
construction workers earned just half the minimum wage, were not given helmets,
gloves or other safety gear and worked in conditions so dangerous that 42 of
them were killed in accidents, the group said.
“Even if the games are a
success, even if we are miraculously able to pull out a successful games, the
negative social legacy is going to be with us for years to come,” said Miloon
Kothari, director of the Housing and Land Rights Network, one of the groups in
the coalition.
Sonia Gandhi, head of the
ruling Congress Party, said Thursday that all the allegations would be
investigated after the closing ceremony. In the meantime, she called on Indians
to unite behind the Games, the biggest sporting event to be held here since the
1982 Asian Games.
“The prestige of the nation
is involved,” she said.
But the event has turned into
an embarrassment for a country that should be focusing instead on fixing its
medical and education system and dealing with the hundreds of millions mired in
poverty, said Rajan Singh, 29, a software engineer.
“With a developing country
like India, we need to invest in other infrastructure,” he said. “Once that is
complete, we can go for Games like this.”
