India falls short of China’s Olympic glory

India bid for the Commonwealth Games hoping to showcase the country’s emergence as a rising economic powerhouse, much as the Olympic Games were seen as a coming out party for China.

But the combined effort of mass remodelling of ageing sports facilities, widespread improvement of roads and frenzied construction of athletes’ hostels has transformed India’s capital city into a giant, dusty and chaotic building site, prompting protracted grumbling by its residents.
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Now residents have another reason to complain: this week, New Delhi authorities slapped city residents with a bill for costs that have spiralled as a result of delays, raising taxes on 32 different commodities – ranging from tea to diesel to mobile phones – while rolling back subsidies on cooking gas.

Already reeling under the burden of skyrocketing food prices, many city residents are now questioning the entire endeavour to host the games, a project now estimated at about $2.1bn, even as officials admit that it will be down to the wire to finish in time.

“I just feel disgusted and ashamed that we are incapable of doing even small things,” said Veena Sharma, a retired government servant. “If they really wanted the prestige of having the Commonwealth Games, they should have prioritised it beforehand and done it in time. They should not hit people at the last moment.”

Adding to the disquiet, the tax rise came just days after a panel appointed by the Delhi High Court reported that at least 40 construction workers had died on games sites, due to lack of safety gear and poor working conditions.

The panel also found that the tens of thousands of migrant workers involved in games preparations were not being paid the legal minimum wage – let alone overtime for the long hours, and were living in squalor on games sites.

“Outrageous,” was how Arundhati Ghose, India’s former ambassador to the UN and a member of the court-appointed panel, described the conditions. “In one stadium, there were four toilets for 150 workers. For workers on the roadside working on road projects, there are no toilets at all – they are just given plastic sheets.”

In its travails, New Delhi’s efforts to prepare for the Commonwealth Games – to be held this October – have highlighted one of the biggest problems still impeding India’s faster economic progress: its inability quickly to roll-out infrastructure projects, which routinely get bogged down in bureaucratic red tape, leading to long delays and huge cost overruns.

Last October, Indian authorities and Commonwealth Games Federation officials had a nasty public spat over what India interpreted as humiliating public criticism by the federation over India’s lack of preparedness for the games. Relations appear smoother now, at least in public, and Sheila Dixit, the chief minister of New Delhi, said in a television interview this week that she was confident that all venues would be ready in time for the games.

But among New Delhi residents – already grappling with more frequent power cuts as the summer heat sets in – anger remains. “It’s a huge pity that our government doesn’t plan infrastructure development for its people in the normal course of things, and they get scrunched around international events and how others perceive us,” said Madhu Mehra, a New Delhi-based lawyer. “It’s literally cleaning the house and sprucing up the living room so your guests are happy, even while the loo and drainage stink.”