My 'Not-So-Personal' Blog

Common Wealth Games 2010 (Shera)

Common Wealth Games or CWG as they have been popularly called has become a source of unfortunate embarrassment to India. What went wrong with CWG 2010? Sure we have blamed Suresh Kalmadi and Lalit Bhanot, but there is more to this matter than just the superficial blame game. Before we blame these people, we ought to think about what we could have done and why we didn’t do it. Not preventing a tragedy like this is as bad as being the perpetrator of it all.

We have listened to the half-assed comments made by people like Sheila Dikshit and Lalit Bhanot about how everything was under control and about how we ought not to compare these facilities to those in Melbourne because ‘our standards’ of cleanliness are different from those outside this country. Sheila Dikshit went on to accuse the media and the people of the country that they are not supporting the country when it needs that the most. Well, to be honest, she didn’t leave us a whole lot to support but she has a point there. What have we done apart from dissing our people over their inefficiencies.

We love passing the buck. Thats the one thing everyone in India does with amazing skill. I recall people like Chetan Bhagat blogging and predicting the doom of these games. Sure he did predict everything that eventually happened. Nostradamus would be proud of him. But what else has he done? What have we, the people who read his blog, done? The trending topics in the twitterverse were jokes on the CWG well before any of these disasters came to fore. I think we should get off our seats and go and contribute in any manner possible. Reviews of the site and comments would have helped months back. Citizen evaluation groups have their own value.

The next time India bids to host any such event, let us go out there and help out. Let the government know that their citizens will rip their bullshit apart if they try to cheat the public. The days of the ignorant common man are over. Its time for the government to get its act together and act responsibly. We will be watching.