Don’t be fooled by ’82 example! It happened then too

With just a week to go before the opening ceremony and most of the publicised problems resolved, this might not be the best time to talk counterfactual history, or ‘What if?’. What if Hitler had won the war, what if Nelson Mandela hadn’t been set free, what if the Commonwealth Games had been cancelled because India were not ready?

Yet, if we do not remind ourselves how that nearly came to pass, we will be perpetuating the Indian cliche, what the sports minister has called the Monsoon Wedding syndrome, where everything falls into place at the eleventh hour. We are a country that lives in the eleventh hour, but why should this be so? The media have begun to focus on the positive elements, so we are in danger of letting the incompetence, the corruption, the sheer arrogance and lack of sensitivity of our officials be swept under the carpet.

It happened in 1982. The Asian Games that today is being held up as the symbol of efficiency wasn’t anything like that. Although allotted to India in 1976, work on the infrastructure began only in 1980. There were problems with construction — the Talkatora swimming stadium had a design fault which meant it had to be left roofless. There was the usual power problem, the red tape, media skepticism. Yet in the end it was a success, and that, in a larger sense might have been a failure because we did not learn from the mistakes.

Many of the CWG’s problems have been discussed in Sellotape Legacy, a well-researched book which hit the stands just as the latest set of disasters was unfolding. The authors Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta accessed original sources to put together the story up to 2009, a story that makes the denouement of 2010 inevitable.

That at least four heads — Suresh Kalmadi, Sheila Dixit, MS Gill and Jaipal Reddy — must roll once the Games are over goes without saying. Success of the Games should not be used to reward those who ensured the failure of the system. It is not just about bringing a nation to shame; it is about taking the nation for a ride in the name of sports. But what odds that crucial files will go missing? It is already happening.

Had the Games been called off, in the short term there would have been enormous financial loss, the loss of face in the international community, heartbreak for sportsmen who had been preparing for months, the sheer waste of effort, and possibly national depression among the middle classes.

In the long run, however, there might have been the possibility of a transformation in our sporting culture which is now the preserve of corrupt politicians. It might have meant a more inclusive system where stadiums are used by sportsmen and do not become white elephants. There might have been greater public scrutiny of how funds are raised and spent in the name of sports and national honour. Perhaps, decentralisation too, with major events moving out of Delhi to other parts of India. It might have meant de-linking sports from politics at the administrative level. Finally, it might have spelt the end of the outdated, irrelevant Games in honour of a colonial power.

Let us not fool ourselves like we did in 1982, when a major event teetered dangerously on the edge of non-fulfilment but is now held up as an example to emulate. Let us remember the disasters of 2010 or this could be held up in 2040 as the epitome of all that was good and great. Those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.

The writer is an author and columnist who has written on Indian sports for over a quarter century