Rumblings: CWG is a four letter word…

 

Torn between the 2 categories of people in this country:

1. A segment that is extremely poor ,fighting for their day today survival and is not bothered about anything other than that.

2. A segment which is extremely affluent with lots of apathy towards nation and the happenings, very busy in their own world … what ever it may be.

There is a big segment of some “in-between” creatures who are educated with a decent living, still believing in their national pride, now extremely disappointed with what they hear and see in the media about the CWG fiasco. They are suffering from a blended feeling of helplessness, anger and dismay, suffering from those rare moments during which being silent is harder than the expressing something.

If you are an “in-between” creature like me, then you may be interested in this blog and so read on…

CWG in my opinion though still has an hangover (should i say stinks?) of the colonial past of imperialism, is yet one of the greatest moments for the selected sport citizens of the world to get together, express camaraderie, show their skills, entertain the crowd but most importantly stretch the boundaries of the human possibilities.

I have always been wondering as to why it was called “Common Wealth States” in the first place and why major sports events are always conducted once in 4 years? Why not every year or once in 2 or 3 years.

Leaving that aside, the 2010 episode of CWG had 2 things from day 1.

Lack of any “common sense” and lot of “Common Ground”. Common sense lacking from the government and organizers in terms of execution and Common ground essentially in terms of being an magnificent magnet for attracting negative publicity.

Let me try to summarize some of the following points:

1. Moving beyond the media statements and the negatives we are hearing i believe much of the infrastructure they have put up and the services that are commissioned are world class. Presuming we are rational animals, we need to open our eyes to them. But the presumption is not right always. As human beings our ability to rally around negative emotions, shout for anything’s downfall, be skeptic about anything and everything, our ability to spot negative things… just negative things only, nurture them at the core of our heart and mind, dwell on the same with extraordinary blinkers without any holistic picture is natural, spontaneous, congenial and makes us a cursed organism in the evolution process.
2. Having said that, the lapses also have been significant. Lets try to see the root cause than the symptoms. In my opinion:
• The root cause of all our problems today is the attitude of the Government and the organizing committee for the last few years / months. There was a very fine blend of ignorance, arrogance and a stupid belief that they cannot fail all rooted in the “denial mode” gene.
• The problem started on the day the government and the OC said that everything is fine, will be fine and there are no issues at all. The moment we get into a denial mode that there is no problem, i guess we are trapped in the quicksand of immaturity and arrogance. Had we accepted that there is a problem probably we would have looked for a solution.
• The reaction of the government on the charges of corruption, literally rejecting them is more shameful than anything we know before. The public outcry about Rs.4000/- toilet papers and et al was ignored just highlighting that this government neither have their “Ears or feet to the ground”.
• It shall be immature on our part to expect any politicians starting from invisible our prime minister to any one down below to take the accountability, be remorseful and get punished.
3. “Common ground” was there from day 1.
• A small section of world population was interested in seeing India not rising up to the need of the hour. You can call them by any name… China, Pakistan, any Islamic terrorist groups. Yet they achieved their objectives without having to do anything significantly. Probably they judged our ability to shoot ourselves in the foot. They are / were right about this government.
• More damage is done now by ourselves than probably a terrorist attack. God forbid, If there is a terrorist attack we could easily blamed anyone and got away with lesser damage to the image in a few months.
• Our own ministers in the government and members within the Congress party were either not too excited about the games or have expressed openly that they are praying for the games to fail. I am not sure how we as a nation can pull through major International events if we are not aligned at that level.
• Most of the top stars have either dropped out or not willing to come based on these reports have done much damage to the credibility of our country in the long run.

If we are what we perceive, then perception is reality. The common perception about the CWG games organization in India this year is that of poor coordination, flawed execution, poor hygiene standards, possible security risks (due to poor quality of construction, not because of terrorist attacks).

The common perception is that India has failed itself in the International arena to assert that it is capable of raising above these mundane challenges in as small a sporting event like CWG and we are ready to take larger responsibilities. Thanks Mr. Prime minister for this great gift to us and you shall be remembered for this.

If “hand is the cutting edge of the mind”, then we were mindless. Mindless about the risk to reputation and the damage to the image and pride of the country.

We may still have the participation of all the countries with their Class B stars and we may yet have a peaceful and successful completion to the games. Lets hope and pray for that.

If that is so then the most important “Common wealth” we would gain is the learning about the mistakes we committed in the run up to this game and avoiding this in the future in a systemic way. Do you believe that this possible and we are up to this?

The common perception is that India has already lost the marketing and perception game in the world arena and its the CWG games that will go on now in which ever form.

I felt lot better when IPL was successfully conducted by Lalit Modi despite so many issues. With an air of arrogance yet with competence, with an image that he is prone to corruption, he was the best fit as our Sports minister. How many of you would back that…?

As one wise man said, “If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother…”

At this point of time as an “In-between” creature i can only hope and pray for the successful conduct of games. I wish we could change this image of an loser to a perception that we are a Stronger and matured nation.

Till then, I feel i am a couple of inches shorter.

Till then, CWG is a four letter word to me..

 

Let the real games begin!…

Happy reading!