So, CWG will go on; may be with some hiccups here and there. Media celebrated the failures with ample footage. The intermittent positive vibes couldn’t be included in their “breaking news” topics as rest of the headlines was busy bashing the Organizing Committee. Social media also enjoyed the failures as much as possible with umpteen jokes, ranging from splendid to distasteful. Many got angry at the organizers when they saw the filth and the accidents; the same got angry with the media when they saw the images of the excellent facilities, which never got any mention in any media. Other countries initially criticized, but then agreed to come in. Some claimed it was because of the current Indian ‘clout’ across the globe. The CWG president also was quoted in media without any fail. Anyway, now it all looks like a interesting drama that’s going to unfold within a week of time. How will it go? I think no one knows how is it going to be.
What is the point of having such an extravaganza? It’s no bigger than a Football world cup or Olympics. Ok, I will leave out the comparisons. But in an event where 85 countries agreed to participate, it’s really important to show off our mettle and our current status of being on a solid path to be the next economic super power! No one will have a second opinion on the same.
A person, when he/she gets rich at the monetary level, his/her next step is to get acceptance from the society because as all know, even from childhood attention matters the most for any person. It's true for a nation also, I guess. India was long known to others as a poor and inept nation, but came to limelight when the country was liberalized in trade. The outsourcing business pulled India to a global stage. Barring the poor and hungry and considerably malnourished population (I’m not downplaying it!), India is a growing economic power which could even veto global conferences now. The clout is growing day by day and many are acknowledging it too. So, this is a stage where we have to prove ourselves. No doubt about it. But is it worth it?
One main aspect about the negative coverage in the media, was about the execution of different facilities. But, it is done by an unskilled, uneducated low level worker. An aspect that came off late in public was about the unmonitored and unsafe conditions in which these people are doing their work and the situations in which they live. Almost all of them are migrant labourers. They live in makeshift apartments. And, they don’t have any assets that they own for themselves. Basically, they are just having a hand to mouth existence. So what incentive does he/she has to complete something, as the global standards demand? Nothing.
Taking the case of this unskilled, uneducated low level worker, he/she won’t even know these ‘global’ standards and they are very much needed in this context, by the top level corrupted ones to loot as much as possible, a fact which we overlook. Also, latest news say that many such people have been evicted even from their makeshift and temporary livelihoods (where they would have lived permanently!), because they would be ‘eyesores’ for our ‘guests’. Where will they go? Will they be rehabilitated? No one has any answer. And, no one can do anything.
The advent of migrant labourers indicates one more alarming situation in our nation. Many are leaving agriculture and related occupations at their native places because of crop losses and ever increasing costs and since they are not skilled in anything else, they are forced to take up these jobs. So, it hurts economy on both fronts, where both the agriculture as well as these large project executions suffer. So, in a way, we are feeding our inefficiencies big time. Unless and until we put a check on them, it’s going to be really bad and we won’t be realizing how it will be hurting our economy. We won’t even know how much wrong our basics are.
Coming back to CWG, I’m still pestered by some questions. Is it worth such a level of spending (the numbers range from Rs.10000 crores to Rs. 60000 crores and even more) to show off our economic power? Are we covering up our weaknesses through this extravaganza? What will we do with these ‘splendid’ facilities in future? Won’t the land prices that increase considerably in Delhi hurt many? I am not sure. I don’t know.
Anyway, let’s just prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
2 comments:
I guess the worst is already out in the media, splashed across in BLOCK LETTERS (unless we've got more surprises coming our way!). And hoping that the CWG will pass, without much ado.
As for the other valid questions you've raised, hope our friends up there have made adequate plans to utilize the "sports village" for the benefit of our country and not the corrupt!
woven a web out of a plethora of issues eh? CWG was just another sorry excuse to eat up money and put on a facade of 'New India'. The part on forgetting our basics, scary situation indeed.
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