Are we game?

The fact that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has had to step in to monitor preparations for the Commonwealth Games due to be held in Delhi next year speaks of the shocking state of affairs and the enormity of the task ahead.

 The president of the Commonwealth Games Federation has already expressed his dissatisfaction with the pace of implementation. There’s only a year — October 13, 2010 is the date — left to play host to this massive sporting event, which involves 71 countries and 17 disciplines.

The shortfall appears to be threefold. There is the infrastructure — roads, flyovers, accommodation, venues — the IT networks and the logistics to coordinate the event.

None of these is close to ready so far. According to urban development ministry estimates, they are around 50 to 60 per cent ready. But these figures have not been corroborated and the PMO is apparently unsure of how reliable they are. This is frightening stuff. An international sporting event requires a nation not just to be on its best behaviour — as Union home minister P Chidambaram is trying to do with the good denizens of Delhi — but also a well-oiled engine to run it so everything is as error-free as possible. Right now, this seems like a tall order.

We should be having working trials. Instead, we have half-made flyovers and an incomplete Games village. Officials are being sanguine that they have practically met schedules. But given the pace at which Indian infrastructure is completed on a normal day, these assurances do  not inspire confidence. There are already fears that costs will go up drastically as more men and machinery are pushed in to projects to complete them on schedule.

The Commonwealth Games, needless to say, are a massive prestige event for us. After all, we have ambitions of hosting an Olympic Games. So we need to ensure that our practice run is perfect — seamless, streamlined, smooth, sensational.

We had in fact done this once with the Asian Games in 1982. But this time the scale is larger and the world will be watching closely. There is no margin for error or embarrassment. The PMO, the urban development ministry, the Commonwealth Games organising committee headed by Suresh Kalmadi and all other concerned agencies need to work not only at full speed but with the requisite attention to quality and detail. The country’s prestige is at stake. The general Indian chalta hai attitude will not work here. We need to prove that we can do it, even if it is to ourselves.