"Wake Up Sid!!!", Well, this movie is aptly dedicated to the current condition of India's organising committee of Commonwealth Games(CWG), 2010 to be held in New Delhi. Instead of Ranbir Kapoor, Suresh Kalmadi(chairman, organising committee) should have played the lead role in the movie, courtesy to his and his team's inherent quality of finishing every job at the pace of a snail. And now India is in deep trouble with its dignity at stake on world stage.
It was on 14th Nov.,2003 that India won the bid to host CWG in 2010. Its almost the end of 2009 and preparations are still in infant stages. We are about to host this mega event in October 2010(less than 365 days) and things are looking hopeless. Let's face it, India is not ready yet!!!
Things are becoming more murkier with war of words going on between Suresh Kalmadi and CWG CEO Mike Hooper. This filthy political touch is making things more messy.
The question is that, why even after getting ample amount of time, the organising committee is beating round the bush and far away from being prepared? Well, there are many reasons. The first and most important being the "Kam Chalau"(to somehow manage) tendency of ours. The committee members simply kept on increasing the dead lines till the CWG eventually knocked at the doors.
Also, in other countries, the govt. encourages schools, civilians, reporters and everyone else to participate in the preparations. This leads to development of sense that they are all integral part of the mega event and everyone becomes enthusiastic and work gets distributed. In our case, 60% Indians don't even have a clue that India is going to host CWG next year. It looks as if this is a personal event of the Indian Govt. Recently, when news reporters tried to give its viewers an inside view of the preparations, they were strictly prohibited from entering and denied any information. Why such negligence?
Another reason which looks fatal to the event is the basic problem faced by Delhi- Traffic. Things could have improved if heed was paid to this menace right from 2003, but now its too late. As an example when recently the Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennel came for inspecting the preparations, the roads were made clear for a smooth drive. But free passage for the Delegates meant a large part of Delhi came to a halt for 10 hours. Same problems will be faced during the event in 2010 also.
However the most shameful fact is that Glasgow(Scotland) is going to host CWG in 2014 and proudly touts that 75% of its preparation is over and they are far better prepared than India. It's shameful because we possess greater man-power, higher resources but still we are lagging behind. It's high time that India should unite and present a memorable, amazing gaming event on the world stage. Anymore delay will be really fatal for the pride and status of India. Wake Up!!!
