Exposing Commonwealth Games’ blunders & plunder

The skeletons are tumbling out of the Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games faster than one can count them.

It has been found that an Indian-owned London organisation was paid an indecent amount for the Baton relay function in which president Pratibha Patil and Queen Elizabeth participated.

OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi tried to shrug it off saying that they followed the suggestions of the Indian high commission there. It turns out that the e-mails meant to back his assertions were doctored. Then there is also the infamous case of treadmills being hired at 10 times the price at which you could buy them at the local fitness equipment shop.

The amount spent in renovating stadia in New Delhi is astronomical. It would seem that with a few thousand crores of rupees you could build new, state-of-the-art stadia, instead of making over existing ones.

The distressing fact is that in spite of the spendthrift ways of Kalmadi and his colleagues, much of the work remains to be completed; what has been done is shabby.

Kalmadi has assumed, the practised impresario that he is, that this is not the time to count pennies and that things have to be done in a grand manner.

Money does not matter as long as the show dazzles. That’s what he has been promising, but a look around the national capital does not inspire much confidence. It is this expensive and expansive shoddiness that is riling people more than anything else.

Some people argue that it is more important to ensure that the games are conducted successfully. If there have been instances of corruption and mishandling, there is time enough to look into them after the event.

India’s prestige in the international arena is at stake and, therefore, the accusations being hurled all round about malpractices is ill-timed. This is a bad argument.

The games should go on and those who have messed it all up should be taken to task immediately. They are two different issues and can be pursued simultaneously.