India’s approach to games attacked

The Commonwealth Games Federation laid responsibility for the ramshackle preparations for next month’s games in New Delhi at the door of India, the host country, describing an approach similar to that portrayed in the film Monsoon Wedding as “unacceptable”.

Mike Hooper, the CGF’s chief executive, said India failed to honour commitments to complete games venues in good time. “We shouldn’t have been in this position,” he told NDTV, an Indian television network, adding that his organisation sounded the alarm about progress last year.

“We have a host city contract that clearly says that the responsibility for the implementation and delivery of all those promises that were made . . . were those of the government of India, the Delhi government and the organising committee,” Mr Hooper said. “We don't have the resources to deliver that. That comes down to the host.”

Although Mr Hooper said he detected a “sea change” after “frustrations boiled over” in recent days, he castigated the capital’s last-minute preparations for a global event that needed “systematic planning”.

“We’ve heard [Indian] ministers talk about a Monsoon Wedding approach,” Mr Hooper added. “That’s unacceptable.” M.S. Gill, the sports minister, had earlier assured critics that New Delhi would pull off the games at the last minute similar to the hurried arrangement of spectacular Indian weddings.

Mr Hooper's remarks, though intended to goad organisers to bring the games back on track, will deepen India’s sense of humiliation. They came as Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, held talks with New Delhi officials in an 11th-hour effort to save the blighted games.

As labourers were rushed in to clean up the filthy athlete’s accommodation, Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Indian organising committee, denied that the games’ future hung in the balance. “There will be good games,” he insisted at the New Delhi international airport, where he received Mike Fennell, the CGF’s president. “We will look after everybody well and they’ll have a great time . . . no two ways about it.”