Shame before the Game

Governance Now, Aug 16-31

If the Commonwealth Games are about national prestige, will we be left with much of it?

Each passing day brings out more embarrassing details about the Commonwealth Games’ preparations, esta-blishing clearly how it is more about a brazen loot of public money and gross incompetence/collusion of a whole set of powerful people—politicians, bureaucrats and sports managers—than anything to do with our sporting prowess.

To begin with, the cost overrun has been colossal—from Rs 1,899 crore at the time of bidding in 2003 to Rs 35,000 crore. Yet, even the basic infrastructure—stadiums, living quarters of players, practice grounds, approach roads to venues and beautification drive in the city—is not in place. The Games’ organising committee (OC) seems busier explaining various scams than in preparing for the competition.
Surprisingly, the first one to blow the whistle was a near-dysfunctional Central Vigilance Commission. It made telling comments: “ineligible agencies were awarded work”; “almost all organisations executing works for the Games (MCD, PWD, DDA, NDMC, CPWD, RITES) considered inadmissible factors to jack-up price”; price bids were “tampered” with after being opened and poor quality of works certified as good. Sitaram Yechuri, a CPM member of parliament, provided more damning evidence when he quoted official records to show how the “renovation” work on stadiums was several times costlier than building new ones—Rs 961 crore for the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Rs 669 crore for the India Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Rs 262 crore for the Dhyan Chand Hockey Stadium and so on. Contrast this with a state-of-art stadium built in Nagpur for Rs 84 crore.

Suresh Kalmadi, OC chairman, tried to brazen it out at first but soon wickets started falling. Documents surfaced to show how huge sums were being siphoned off to an UK-based company. Kalmadi justified it by flaunting an official document that turned out to be doctored and the first wicket fell—Sanjay Mahindroo, OC’s deputy DG, resigned and disappeared. Then OC treasurer Anil Khanna resigned after it was revealed that his son’s firm had got the contract to lay synthetic tennis turfs. Two other senior officials, T S Darbari and M Jeychandran, were suspended for financial irregularities.
Then came the shocking revelations about hiring sports equipments and accessories at prices higher than their actual cost. Though this forced the OC to go for outright purchase of sports equipments, more shocking details were waiting. All the financial deals had actually been cleared by an apex body that included top bureaucrats of the country—M Ramachandran (secretary, urban development), Sindhushree Khullar (secretary, sports and youth affairs), Sanjiv Kumar Mittal, (additional secretary, finance) and Rahul Bhatnagar (joint secretary, sports and youth affairs). And none of them raised an eyebrow at any point!

More scams followed. The OC had contracted an Australian sports marketing firm to find sponsors for the Games. The firm’s own contribution was very little as most of the sponsorship came from our own PSUs, but as per the contract, it was to get 15 to 23 percent commission on all of it. The OC had also committed to give another 5 percent of its revenue to the Indian Olympic Association that Kalmadi heads, purely as a charity. Both had to be scrapped by the OC later because of public outcry.
As for our loudmouth MP Mani Shankar Aiyar, who has been the most vocal critic of the Games, it turns out that he played a major role as the sports minister between 2006 and 2008 in blocking most of the work-related proposals, leading to delay and cost overrun to the tune of at least Rs 1,710 crore. This was revealed by the sports ministry officials!

Amidst all these hullabaloo, Kalmadi, the man responsible for much of the mess, remains unfazed. He has even ordered an inquiry to find out the guilty! But our appeal to him is: Please Go. The Games can’t be a bigger fiasco without you. And since you can’t be sacked, the OC being a registered society, you would serve the Games and the country best by quitting the scene now!