Common wealth games are just a couple of months away. We are trying hard to fill the gaps- of tarnished national pride, the magnitude of corruption in the organising of games and trying to paint a rosy picture of the nation before the world.
I observe one common thing whenever a dignitary arrives for some function in the city, we dot the sides of the road with white lime powder to give a feel and look that everything is ready to welcome the guest and it is the royal way to say, we give the guest due precedence. Suddenly the arena becomes green with flower pots and red carpets.
Wow- White lines, green plants and red carpets to welcome the august gathering. Everything in place.
But under the guise of these tricolors we hide- the dirt on the roads, uncleaned garbage bins, the pungent odors are covered by flower pots, bouquets and garlands and not to miss the corruption under the red carpets. These are the camouflage for our misdeeds.
No wonder commonwealth games have all these lacunae and much more in a grandeur scale and pompousness. DO we take pride in this hollowness of our work culture? Or do we need to blame the Organising Committee more committed to organised themselves and weighing their opportunities to siphon off the money allotted. If there is one leak it can be curbed but if the whole canvas is leaking it needs replacement.
But as is seen , the selection committees in sports- be it sports authorities, Associations, Federations have strict rules for selecting the players but not the selectors. There are no performance indicators for such committee members and they hang on to the posts for years together. We are seeing no change in the organising committee members even though we have seen many prestigious games like Asiads, Olympics, World cups for football, Athletics Afro Asian to name a few. Whatever medals or medal we achieved is due to the individual talent and not the talent of the committees who have to support, train, guide, motivate and provide the players with all required amenities as they are the proud representatives of the country on whose shoulders we have placed the aspirations of a billion hearts.
No mention of players is anywhere seen in the headlines nor the electronic media.
If we are still determined to undermine each other through our incorrigible egos, when will we focus on nation's pride and performance.
If results don't come, we should fire the heads of these organisations curtlessly and give credence to players requirements and who have love for the game and sport.
Nobody is sacrosanct in any position and better monitoring of performance of people heading such organisations will definitely bring in more good talent or rather real talent than mediocre performers.
When governments can fund huge amounts to organising sports, they should first invest in the players who would be playing them and give them their right share and due respect.
Key Performance Indicators should and must be in place so that proper accountability is maintained and results start rolling in the sports sector when such huge infrastructure is created.
Let us not trail,slip or fall on the treadmills,
let our roofs be strong enough until we perform under them and not cave in,
hope our swimming pool is having clear water to see any nails protruding, or let not our synthetic track glue us to it from moving forward or
let not our pole vault break in the middle of the jump.
Let us pray god for keeping all these in tact until the games are over and last but not the least, let our ATC at airports work properly, for our foreign athletes may reach home safely and express a sign of relief.
Whether any probe will be done or not, the government should shoulder responsibility and revamp all these sports organisations who have defamed us on all counts and is in news for all wrong reasons be it- IPL scam, Hockey players protests, weightlifting woes, corruption in conduct of games and related contracts.
Let not the world award us gold medals in,
1 Starvation- we have world's half of the BPL families starving in India,
2 Corruption- At all levels
3 Redtapism
4 Unfriendliness
5 Killing people in the name of honour
6 Jungle raj in certain remote areas where a girl was stripped naked and molested by mass - her fault being loving a person from some other community.
7 Legalising illegal things
8 Not taking bold decisions
9 Protecting the guilty and giving them royal treatment(Satyam fraud).
10 More criminals into politics
11 No accountability and fear of punishment.
12 A country where everything can be got with a price tag- of course illegally.
Let wisdom dawn on the powers there be and look at majority good than clinging on to chairs for satiating their greed .
Let it not be a showpiece for common people to gape and leave their tax money for the wealthy to share the booty and poor players are left on the ground to find their way out of the jigsaw puzzle games.