To Commonwealth Games With Disgust and Determination
Posted on 24. Sep, 2010 by Ajay Goyal in All Write
By Ajay Goyal
Most rich residents of Delhi will escape to Thailand during Commonwealth Games. 71 countries have been invited to a city that is uninhabitable. Other Delhi residents will have to hide in their homes because there will be no public transport and no way of getting anywhere. Overzealous security will create traffic chaos. Offices and schools will be closed. Poor will be shuttered behind bamboo screens so they cannot embarrass Indians by showing themselves. Indians will escape or hide well from Commonwealth Games.
But those of us overseas, have nowhere to hide from the shame of India hosting this grand event. Headline stories in all newspapers with pictures of games village covered in muck and overflowing with sewage, nightly TV show hosts poking fun and disgust in equal measure have brought shame on us Indians everywhere. In the last few years world had begun to see Indians in a different light – as people who can create a whole new economic model from thin air with brain power, take a quantum leap in computer business despite absence of basic infrastructure, provide hard working and honest managers and engineers to world’s leading companies despite huge odds. What the world now knows is that India was a one trick pony and Indians did it all despite best efforts of their government to strangle progress. Indian government is back with vengeance to destroy India’s reputation.
Indian politicians and bureaucrats bid seven years ago to host games for 10,00 athletes. They beat a third tier Canadian city Hamilton which is a little university town and that would no doubt have hosted excellent games. They then spent over US$ 8-9 billion to build some basic infrastructure and renovate some existing stadiums. They stole most of it.
As a result all that is wrong with India is now on display. The incompetence, corruption, thievery, macho grand standing, lies and shamelessness of Indian rulers is on full display to the world. Indians will soon struggle to compete with Afghanistan in backwardness and corruption because China and Africa have left us far behind.
On Google news there were 12,038 stories about Commonwealth games today. None of them had anything positive to report.
In a way we should be grateful for this deluge of negative ( and truthful ) expose and reporting. Commonwealth games have finally revealed the truth of India’s deep malice. Poverty, homelessness, unskilled and illiterate labour force uprooted and left to subhuman life in cities, child labour; beggary, disregard for human life, filth & squalor, absence of basic facilities and utilities like toilets and running water – and incessant lies & looting by politicians without fear of any retribution or punishment – are all out in the open for the world to see. This is the show that needed to be put up otherwise the lies would have gone on perpetually.
For the first time in recent memory, Indian middle classes – the worlds’ most vocal and argumentative – are having to stare at the dismal state of their own country, too. They usually do not see what is in their face each moment. They have acquired a unique ability to shut out the reality and truth and repeat the lies about India. They believe in make-belief of India being a country on the march that will be an economic super power — tomorrow. Now, the image of this imaginary India – jewel of British commonwealth — has been shattered. Now they must shed their macho attitude and accept that India is a failed country. It is a country that could have been a model and example of progress and development, of peace and prosperity, of democracy and freedom that were its destiny. Alas, India has missed its tryst with destiny.
From this realization of the sad state of our country’s governance some good might come. Educated Indians might take some responsibility and accept their own personal role in the disaster that is Delhi and India today. They might stop behaving like zombies with no relation to Indian reality. Indians — educated Indians — will perhaps question why things have come to this. Perhaps they will take charge of their democracy now. Perhaps they participate in politics and walk to polling booths with their memories fresh of shame of Commonwealth Games 2010. They might decide to clean their own front yard, remove their own rubbish, respect the shirtless labourer in their lawn, pity the naked young children begging on every street corner, refuse the next bribe and confront the next lie.
We, the Indians, must shed our arrogance and false pride. We must accept the Indian reality with all humility. We must confront the propagation of lies about India’s economic strength and miracle economy. We must accept that misplaced priorities of development for a few are causing death, suffering and pain to many. India is being deconstructed and destructed by vengeance of criminals and cabals that rule it.
Commonwealth games disaster was not created in the last 60 days. It was a systemic failure that was achieved each day in hundreds of government departments and agencies over seven years in full view of Indian public and media. We, the Indians, let it happen. This fiasco is not of one or two officials’ making. It is the result of sixty years’ legacy of corruption and misrule and our apathy toward it. It is a direct result of aloof detachment of Indian middle classes and their creed “all is well ” sung to Bollywood tunes with middle age film stars shaking their buttocks in gravity defying movements in world’s most scenic locations. We cannot take pride in our shame any more.
The games will happen, of course, as they should. There will be a spectacular show with plenty of fireworks and razzmatazz. They will blind some. Some critics will be bought, others shouted down. Some will get tired others frustrated and disenchanted. The show will go on. That will be a terrible outcome. What must not happen is for such spectacles to ever again drown down the truth.
If we ever wants India to change, we must start with accepting three simple truths. First, India is failing. Second, this failure is a direct result of the fact that Indian politicians and bureaucrats are a corrupt, often criminal lot. And third, it is our fault and our responsibility that we have allowed our nation to fall in such hands. If we change our attitude, accept our personal responsibilty and pledge never to give in to divisive politics, superstition, slogans, self serving half truths and plain lies about India, we can change India in no time at all. We can vote these goons out. We can take India back from them.
From the sewage, dengue and debri of this spectacle, we can walk away with disgust and determination. Disgust at what has been done to India and determination that we will not allow it to happen any further.
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