Traditionally Common wealth games have been the stage for the colonies (now independent nations) of the Great British Empire to showcase their skills in the field of sports. The term common wealth refers to these nations who were once part of this Brobdingnagian empire. The game organising committee in India seems to have taken the common wealth games a bit too literally and they have left no stone unturned to ensure that the common wealth games stay true to their name. However, it has so turned out that they have misinterpreted the meaning.
With over thousands of crore of rupees being mismanaged in multitude of CWG projects, cases of money laundering and illegal money transfer to UK based companies, plethora of problems surfacing in the games infrastructure and growing security concerns among the participating countries connotes to the fact that long before the CWG starts, the organising committee has already started playing their own game: The game of Common – Wealth. However here meaning of common wealth is conspicuously different from the one we have held and cherished. The common wealth as understood by the organising committee is the “wealth of common man“.
This game of common wealth is played on a completely different turf alongside the CWG. The players are the conniving officials who were entrusted with the job of showcasing CWG 2010 as india’s bid for the olympic games. Its is still unclear, how the Indian contingent will perform in the CWG but the scorecards for the game of common wealth have already started sprouting. Large-scale procedural violations in over 16 CWG projects worth over 2000 crores, dubious money transfer to overseas companies, incomplete and under-prepared infrastructure and extended deadlines can be construed as an exceptional performance by the organising committee.
Such a performance is much in line with what is generally expected from our politicians who have consummate skills when it comes to playing this game of common wealth. It further evinces the fact that our officials and bureaucrats have true faith in the leadership and that they idolize them in all respect.
One’s heart goes out for the athletes who are denied the basic preparation facilities throughout the year and now , after years of malnutrition and underpreparation, that finally pin their hope on methylhexanemine, the corrupt officials won’t let them do that too. While these very officials had shown so much of understanding and kinship when they were devouring the funds, we are compelled to ask : couldn’t they simply overlook the failed bood test? Afterall the athletes also deserved the “common-wealth” bonanza. All, that these athletes were trying to do, was to get their hands on a few medal, a momentary shot to fame (afterall do we really care about anything that is not cricket) and maybe some honour from the Indian government. Now that the authorities are not relenting on the dope cases, it seems that the indian contingent will have to fall back on the old mantra of performance to win some medals. Dammn the home advantage!! (I wonder if they are feeling like Ganguly playing against Australia on a bouncy pitch in Eden garden!)
Anyways the games would begin on 3rd October. Teams would perform and stars would be born. How the games would go is still in a state of dubiety but one thing is for sure that when they end on 14th October, with them will end India’s hopes of hosting a olympic.
