04-22-2007, 02:25 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Delhi's lost chance </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Paying for cussed Third Worldism
With the Olympic Council of Asia voting for South Korea's Incheon rather than New Delhi, the 2014 Asian Games will not, as it happens, come to India. Doubtless perhaps part of the reason for India's defeat was the financially superior bid put together by the South Koreans. The over-confidence of the Indian Olympic Association, which thought it had the 2014 Asiad sewn up because its leading office-bearers were well-networked in the OCA, must surely share blame too. Nevertheless, IOA president Suresh Kalmadi has blamed Union Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar for queering the pitching by being openly critical of India's bid and calling it a waste of money for a country with 250 million people in poverty. The BJP, keen as an Opposition party should be to exploit divisions in the ruling coalition, has sought to move a parliamentary motion against Mr Aiyar. Certainly, <b>the manner in which the Sports Minister was shouted down by colleagues at the Cabinet meeting where the Indian bid was finally cleared, as well as his continued and relentless attack on the idea of India hosting big sports events - if Mr Aiyar had his way, he would cancel the 2010 Commonwealth Games too - have not left the UPA Government looking prim and pretty.</b>
It would be tempting to see Mr Aiyar's glee at India not winning the right to what would have been its first Asian Games in 32 years as one man's personal angularity. It is much more than that. It betrays a mindset, a Third Worldism almost, that is all too prevalent in Indian public life. This romanticises indigence and frowns upon growth and its spin off, such as urban infrastructure, as vices; it has, in the past year especially, severely constricted this Government's capacity for economic reform. That larger issue being where it is, it is necessary to counter the Sports Minister's cussed opposition to the Commonwealth and Asian Games. For a start, are these guaranteed to lose money? Other than the Montreal Olympics of 1976, no major multi-event sporting event in recent decades has been a financial failure. Many second or third rung cities - Atlanta, Seoul - have used Olympics and other games to bolster infrastructure, repackage the city as a business and tourist destination and make that quantum leap to a global metropolis. The case of Athens, the small, ragged capital of a B-list economy, is there for all to see. When Greece hosted the 2004 Olympics, it gave its capital an underground rapid transit network and an overground road matrix that a decade of 'normal' planning would not have achieved. Delhi's experience with the preparation for the Commonwealth Games is instructive. It has given east Delhi a new identity and urban sensibility, fast-tracked the Metro to Gurgaon and Noida, and had the Finance Minister offering tax incentives for building hotels in the National Capital Region. All of these were much needed; their legacy will serve India years after the Australian and Kenyan athletes have gone home in 2010. One of the major organisational costs for any modern sporting spectacular is in the IT operations that, in a sense, micromanage the games. The Commonwealth Games will be a huge business opportunity as well as a showcase for Indian IT; the Asiad would have been too. Rajiv Gandhi realised these long-term benefits when he worked behind the scenes to make the 1982 Asian Games a success. It's a pity his Socialist sidekick could never see the point.
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
Paying for cussed Third Worldism
With the Olympic Council of Asia voting for South Korea's Incheon rather than New Delhi, the 2014 Asian Games will not, as it happens, come to India. Doubtless perhaps part of the reason for India's defeat was the financially superior bid put together by the South Koreans. The over-confidence of the Indian Olympic Association, which thought it had the 2014 Asiad sewn up because its leading office-bearers were well-networked in the OCA, must surely share blame too. Nevertheless, IOA president Suresh Kalmadi has blamed Union Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar for queering the pitching by being openly critical of India's bid and calling it a waste of money for a country with 250 million people in poverty. The BJP, keen as an Opposition party should be to exploit divisions in the ruling coalition, has sought to move a parliamentary motion against Mr Aiyar. Certainly, <b>the manner in which the Sports Minister was shouted down by colleagues at the Cabinet meeting where the Indian bid was finally cleared, as well as his continued and relentless attack on the idea of India hosting big sports events - if Mr Aiyar had his way, he would cancel the 2010 Commonwealth Games too - have not left the UPA Government looking prim and pretty.</b>
It would be tempting to see Mr Aiyar's glee at India not winning the right to what would have been its first Asian Games in 32 years as one man's personal angularity. It is much more than that. It betrays a mindset, a Third Worldism almost, that is all too prevalent in Indian public life. This romanticises indigence and frowns upon growth and its spin off, such as urban infrastructure, as vices; it has, in the past year especially, severely constricted this Government's capacity for economic reform. That larger issue being where it is, it is necessary to counter the Sports Minister's cussed opposition to the Commonwealth and Asian Games. For a start, are these guaranteed to lose money? Other than the Montreal Olympics of 1976, no major multi-event sporting event in recent decades has been a financial failure. Many second or third rung cities - Atlanta, Seoul - have used Olympics and other games to bolster infrastructure, repackage the city as a business and tourist destination and make that quantum leap to a global metropolis. The case of Athens, the small, ragged capital of a B-list economy, is there for all to see. When Greece hosted the 2004 Olympics, it gave its capital an underground rapid transit network and an overground road matrix that a decade of 'normal' planning would not have achieved. Delhi's experience with the preparation for the Commonwealth Games is instructive. It has given east Delhi a new identity and urban sensibility, fast-tracked the Metro to Gurgaon and Noida, and had the Finance Minister offering tax incentives for building hotels in the National Capital Region. All of these were much needed; their legacy will serve India years after the Australian and Kenyan athletes have gone home in 2010. One of the major organisational costs for any modern sporting spectacular is in the IT operations that, in a sense, micromanage the games. The Commonwealth Games will be a huge business opportunity as well as a showcase for Indian IT; the Asiad would have been too. Rajiv Gandhi realised these long-term benefits when he worked behind the scenes to make the 1982 Asian Games a success. It's a pity his Socialist sidekick could never see the point.
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