Pulling it together

A couple of very visible glitches have hit the Commonwealth Games. Yet,the hysterical responses that the entire Games effort has fallen through convey a disturbing lack of proportion. Our long-standing pessimism about our ability to put any sort of show together needs little enough to feed on; and these stories have caused the already simmering hysteria that has surrounded the CWG over the last couple of months to burst into the open. Its difficult at this point to hear any voice of authority and reason even,it would appear,in the government.

Of course,every major sporting event has been prefaced by loud doom-saying. Beijing,we were told,was too polluted for athletics,and algae had infected the watersports areas. Nothing was ready in Athens,people worried. Vancouver,before it hosted the Winter Olympics,did not have enough snow,and South Africa,before the World Cup,had too many muggers. Each of those narratives played up existing stereotypes about those countries growing too fast; not ready to be a full member of Europe; lazy about global warming; not tough on crime. And thus,before Delhis games,the attempt is being made to convince us that corruption and shoddiness will lead to disaster. But this time its different because the ultimate authority,the Union government,has not taken the lead,and has not wrested control of the narrative. Where is the sports minister? Why is the urban development minister not in full command of the facts? Why is it that concerns about the Games Village are not met with an authoritative statement that they will be properly cleaned as they must be before theyre handed over finally,instead of an ill-thought-out quote from some middle-level functionary that implies India has different standards of hygiene? The story threatens to balloon out of control,losing all tethers to reality.

That Indias government isnt countering the Delhi-bridges-are-falling-down spin effectively is one thing. But its worth noticing,too,that other stakeholders arent helping. Other Commonwealth authorities,for example,seem to think this qualifies as Someone Elses Problem. But is it? Remember,these arent the Asian Games,or the Olympics,where the temptation to compete silences the nitpickers. No,these are about the Commonwealth as much as about games. Participants like Scotland,New Zealand and Australia should acknowledge they too are stakeholders not just in this event,but also in the idea of the Commonwealth Games.