Commonwealth Games – proud to be a Delhiite?

Being a Delhiite, I’m still not sure whether I should feel proud that the city is hosting the Commonwealth Games or should I curse and criticize the authorities for even attempting to host the games. This mixed reaction which most of the Delhiites will perhaps relate, comes from several factors:

I travel each day from Dwarka to Okhla to my office via the outer ring road, where construction/ beautification work are being undertaken. I leave home at 8.00 and reach office (if I’m lucky) at around 9.30, which is a driving time of one and half hour to cover just 32 kms. With a cut-off time of 9.40 am in office, it means if I reach after 9.40 for four days I get a day’s pay cut. This has been the norm since 2008, when construction of the flyover near the airport started. So should I feel proud that I’m taking a day’s pay cut each month for the Games which probably I will not even go to watch?

When I see the way the decision-makers work, I feel it was a wrong city to host the Commonwealth Games. Here’s why? The single carriageway flyover on the outer-ring road near West-end was built for vehicles coming from the airport, but surprisingly today, the flyover is used by vehicles going towards the airport. Probably in the history of building flyovers this is the one flyover which has been reversed. The fact that this flyover was reversed within a month from its operation speaks highly of the planning the civic bodies had undertaken before spending crores of rupees on it!! A friend of mine, when the flyover was reversed, jokingly said that a couple of politicians might have missed their flights…Well, you never know, he might be right! So should I feel proud of that Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games?

Now the coordination of each departments is so superb that you will now find the newly planted grass and plants under the flyovers with a coat of paint. Can’t it be that the flyover is painted first and the plants planted later…rational perhaps! From Pancheel to the Savitri flyover there is more that a kilometer long traffic jam each day. Why? Even I’m confused now. The entire place besides the one-carriage Savitri flyover is being dug and every couple of week the signage proudly declaring who is making a mess of the place changes. But I should be proud that Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games!

The Delhi government has raised taxes, or slashed subsidies, on everything from cooking gas to diesel, and from mobile phones to clothes, to raise Rs 850 crore (Rs 8.50 billion). Not a big deal. But when you see, read and hear reports of officials and politicians allegedly taking the Commonwealth Games as Come-on-wealth Games, I feel cheated. I know if not cent per cent, 50 percent of these allegations or reports are absolutely right. So should I feel proud that Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games?

I have very limited resources for broadening my knowledge base, so whatever I write are mostly based on what I see with my own eyes or taken from (reliable) sources. So a FM station tells me that the construction work of the stadiums for London Olympics to be held in 2012 is almost over. But here we have barely a couple of weeks left and now we are running against time hoping that we can complete them before the Games. I hope something like the Ferozeshah Kotla cricket ground doesn’t happen where the final India-Sri Lanka one-dayer last year had to be abandoned because of a dangerous pitch, bringing nothing but disgrace and also putting a question mark over its stature as an international venue.

Just today former Australian swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Dawn Fraser has urged the athletes of her country to boycott the Delhi Commonwealth Games citing security threat and the city’s lack of preparation to host the mega sports event. While our authorities might take it lightly, there is some truth in what Fraser said: “The Indians are telling us that security will be right. But they have also been telling us for months that their stadiums are ready to go, too, and quite obviously they are not. So what else are they keeping secret?.” Well, we are very good at keeping secrets…so please wait till October! The security in a small market in Dwarka 6 and 10, which I usually frequent will perhaps answer Fraser’s query on security. Nobody goes through the metal detectors and who cares…there is not a single policeman in sight. But then I should feel proud that Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games!

And while all efforts now seem to be focused on completing the projects, we seem to have forgotten a very important aspect – training players of the public transport to be courteous and to follow traffic rules. There has been talks of replacing the DTC buses which are dirty and in dilapidated state. I can bet my life if one doesn’t find a broken-down DTC bus stranded on the middle of road everyday. Cows were happily mating on the road near Munirka and Masjid Moth flyover till yesterday and haggling with auto-rickshaw drivers is a norm. Pedestrians are still not using overground or underground passes and I have seen drivers of the AC DTC buses smoking bidis with a bus full of passengers. So should I be feeling proud that Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games?

Lastly, what is the relevance of these Commonwealth Games in the 21st century? The Commonwealth refers to those countries who were formerly part of the British Empire. Where is that empire now? And the head of the Commonwealth is the Queen, whose rule our fore-fathers had fought and died to gain our Independence. And although the word Commonwealth means ‘common well-being’ we all know well as to whose common well-being the British empire had in mind! So what’s such hullabaloo all about? Beats me!

No doubt Delhi will probably look better with all the beautification work that are being undertaken. But at what cost – my one day’s pay each month or three hours of my life each day spent on the road due to traffic snarls or the tax on my beer which I now pay? It’s true that deep down each Delhiite hopes that the Commonwealth Games are successfully held, but the way things are going, I have real doubts…prove me wrong Mr Kalmadi. I will be more than happy to be wronged. But my view remains the same – India will do better in soccer if Bengalis quit playing the sport and the country will do better in athletics if Suresh Kalmadi quits…as of now we are stuck with both!