Author: Ashok Malik
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 7, 2010
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/274477/Don't-overlook-Centre's-role.html
To understand the crisis-like situation the
Commonwealth Games preparations have led India to, it is necessary to look
beyond Mr Suresh Kalmadi and the mess he presides over at the Organising Committee.
The Union Government's attempt to pin all blame on the OC is half-correct
and half-hypocritical. In reality, the Government itself is guilty of lack
of oversight, turning a blind eye to blatant corruption in some of its own
infrastructure and civic agencies and - more broadly - of not taking ownership
of what is at the end of the day a national event.
It would be worth revisiting the 1982 Asian
Games, since the organisation of those Games is now cited as a model the Commonwealth
Games should have followed. The Asian Games Special Organising Committee was
headed by Mr Buta Singh, a Union Minister. Giving him political backing was
Rajiv Gandhi, then an MP and, more important, the son of the Prime Minister.
Delhi was admittedly an easier place to do
business in back then. There was no State Government. The Lieutenant Governor
and the Union Home Ministry pretty much ran the city. The Indian Olympic Association
and other sports bodies - including the Board of Control for Cricket in India
in that pre-commercial age - were much more in Government control. As such,
if Mr Buta Singh or Rajiv Gandhi wanted something done, they had the authority
to go directly to concerned Ministers or departments. In a sense, they were
the ultimate project managers.
The India of 2010 is very different. The Government
is not quite the all-powerful entity it was 28 years ago. Politics itself
is more coalitional and less of a single-party monopoly. That apart, Delhi
has become a State, and local Governments and civic bodies have far greater
budgets and powers in today's India. Finally, business and civil society institutions
have gained a degree of autonomy. For instance, the Indian Olympic Association
or the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee can demand and be expected
to be given operational freedom from the Government.
In theory, the India of 2010 is more democratic
than the India of 1982. Yet, it is disconcerting that the layered structures
of authority have not triggered efficiency but, rather, created opportunities
for stonewalling and corruption. One by one, each of the attributes of the
'new' India - the country as it has evolved since the 1980s - has let down
the people. The Commonwealth Games fiasco is a shaming example of this betrayal.
The IOA and the Commonwealth Games OC have
not been a good advertisement for civil society institutional freedom. The
IOA has extricated space from the Government, protested in recent months when
the Union Sports Ministry sought to place term and age ceilings on office-bearers.
Even so, when it came to organising the Games, the removal of the Government's
day-to-day scrutiny only resulted in the worst excesses of crony capitalism.
Having said that, the OC's fiddle is positively
small-time compared to that in Government agencies. What didn't help was the
complex and unique nature of Delhi, which is not quite a full-fledged State
and has jurisdictions divided between the Union and State Governments. Some
agencies report to the Chief Minister, some to the Lieutenant Governor, some
- like the Delhi Police - tend to bypass even the Lieutenant Governor and
speak directly to the Union Home Secretary.
There was ample room for confusion here. The
result was a free for all that has, over the past two years, ravaged Delhi.
Between them the New Delhi Municipal Council, the Municipal Corporation of
Delhi, the Delhi Development Authority, the Sports Authority of India, the
Central Public Works Department and about a dozen other agencies have made
a hell of this metropolis. It is a fair assessment that several senior officials
have feathered their nests.
The inflated bills of the OC are well known,
but those are only the tip of the iceberg. In 2003, when India won the Games
bid, it was estimated the nine stadiums the SAI would renovate would cost
`150 crore. The final bill is `2,400 crore. Even if the initial figure was
understated, one can understand it being doubled or trebled. As it happens,
it has gone up 16 times.
For the moment, nobody is alleging political
corruption and the charges are limited to bureaucrats and Government engineers.
The Union Sports Minister and Union Urban Development Minister are seen as
honest men, incapable of being bribed. Nevertheless, the same cannot be said
of the agencies under them - whether SAI or DDA or CPWD. For the Delhi Government,
the political backlash is already obvious. From smug and condescending, those
at the helm of the State administration are beginning to appear tetchy and
defensive.
The issue goes deeper (or higher). The Prime
Minister and the leadership of the UPA Government cannot escape responsibility
for, at the very least, acts of omission. Unlike the cricket World Cup or,
say, an ATP tennis tournament, an event such as the Commonwealth Games or
the Olympics has a profound diplomatic implication. The buy-in of the national
Government, in terms of sovereign guarantees, financial underwriting and legal-political
commitments, is essential. The UPA didn't own up to this till very late in
the day.
When it came to power in 2004, the Manmohan
Singh Government was unsure of where the Commonwealth Games fitted in with
its aam aadmi ticket. Rather than face facts, it ran away from them. Even
when things got moving, in 2008, responsibility was piecemeal and no one person/institution
was given cross-cutting authority.
Take an example. Delhi Police is not answerable
to the OC, the Sports Ministry or the Tourism Ministry; it reports to the
Home Ministry. However, the security restrictions that the police puts in
place will have profound implications on how the Games are experienced by
spectators and visitors. They will also need to be sold to the citizens of
Delhi, which is a job the police and the Union Home Ministry couldn't be bothered
with but the impact of which is inevitably going to hit the State Government.
It could all have been avoided if a special
purpose vehicle, with quasi-government authority and political backing, had
been given overall charge of Games preparations. This is how other countries
do it. As usual, India decided to be different.
- malikashok@gmail.com
