Jeff Byrne

    THE Commonwealth Games in Delhi went almost without notice in China. They also went almost unnoticed among the masses in India.

    The crowds of spectators just did not eventuate. The common people were not interested in foreigners running in circles to see who was the fastest or throwing things to see who could throw the farthest, even if they had the time and money to attend. Most of the spectators seemed to be families or friends of competitors.

    Most publicity in the weeks prior to the games centered on a series of mishaps that included the collapse of a pedestrian bridge near the main stadium just days before the opening ceremony. A rail link to the airport went unopened and many venues, Metro stations and flyovers were hurriedly finished.

    There were enough who believed the preparation had been so poor that the Games would not go ahead. Many elite athletes decided against competing for a raft of reasons, not least that the event would be a disaster.

    They were wrong. India’s Games were successful but the months of negative publicity and the threat of cancellation did nothing for India’s aspirations of an emerging economic power.

    Head of the New Delhi-based Inaginia Institute think tank, Robinder Sachdev, said it was a classic example of management by crisis “which is precisely the sort of stereotype of India that these Games were supposed to dismantle.”

    The idea of “getting it right in the end” was an image neither needed nor wanted to be perpetuated in overseas boardrooms.

    While the 12-day event cost an estimated US$6 billion, Sachdev estimated it could have cost billions more in investor confidence.

    Corruption has been blamed for much of the delay and Samuel Paul, founder of the Public Affairs Center in Bangalore, which lobbies for the improvement of government standards in India, said the games had exposed the country’s problems with governance, transparency and accountability.

    And, on the street, the many businesspeople who had outlaid vast sums on restaurant renovations in the expectation of reaping the rewards from the influx of visitors were disappointed by the crowds that did not turn up.

    In addition, vast numbers of slum-dwellers were made homeless as shanty towns were bulldozed to clean up the city.

    There were few in India who found much to cheer about.

    (The author is a Shenzhen Daily senior copy editor and writer.)