India’s ‘dirty’ secret is out Ashwini Nachappa, Deccan Chronicle
On paper I’m still a member of the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games, but I haven’t been informed about a meeting for almost two years now.
The reason being, I voiced my opinions in the presence of Sheila Dixit during one of the initial meetings and I was kept away from the subsequent meetings. There was never a need for people who can think progressively. In fact a couple of weeks ago a few of us former international athletes were denied entry into the Nehru stadium. One can only guess, why we were not allowed.
The day we won the bid we should have treated it as a nation’s pride. But Suresh Kalmadi very proudly proclaimed, CWG is my baby, I have brought it to India. The people who took charge of the Games were the ones who have been ruling Indian sports and those who cannot survive without it. But sports would have thrived without them.
Lack of transparency is what brought the Games (and infrastructure) crumbling down. In fact this disaster has been waiting to happen. We have never been able to pull off anything big even at the national level, like the National Games, then how do we put together such a big event. Until now Indian athletes were exposed to the incompetence of people at the helm of affairs and now, they it has been laid bare to people from across the world. With that they brought a whole nation down.
Now everyone is playing the blame game and shunning responsibility, why didn’t anyone try to plug the financial irregularities over the past seven years. They let the country bleed with the budget sky-rocketing and nothing stunningly new coming up in terms of infrastructure. Most of the stadiums have been renovated and not built. So why the expense and the delay, was the question never asked?
As a country we should have benefited from the Games in terms of business and revenues, but alas, we can now only pray that the athletes who have come do not go back with bad memories.”
(Ashwini Nachappa is a former International athlete)
The reason being, I voiced my opinions in the presence of Sheila Dixit during one of the initial meetings and I was kept away from the subsequent meetings. There was never a need for people who can think progressively. In fact a couple of weeks ago a few of us former international athletes were denied entry into the Nehru stadium. One can only guess, why we were not allowed.
The day we won the bid we should have treated it as a nation’s pride. But Suresh Kalmadi very proudly proclaimed, CWG is my baby, I have brought it to India. The people who took charge of the Games were the ones who have been ruling Indian sports and those who cannot survive without it. But sports would have thrived without them.
Lack of transparency is what brought the Games (and infrastructure) crumbling down. In fact this disaster has been waiting to happen. We have never been able to pull off anything big even at the national level, like the National Games, then how do we put together such a big event. Until now Indian athletes were exposed to the incompetence of people at the helm of affairs and now, they it has been laid bare to people from across the world. With that they brought a whole nation down.
Now everyone is playing the blame game and shunning responsibility, why didn’t anyone try to plug the financial irregularities over the past seven years. They let the country bleed with the budget sky-rocketing and nothing stunningly new coming up in terms of infrastructure. Most of the stadiums have been renovated and not built. So why the expense and the delay, was the question never asked?
As a country we should have benefited from the Games in terms of business and revenues, but alas, we can now only pray that the athletes who have come do not go back with bad memories.”
(Ashwini Nachappa is a former International athlete)
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