Commonwealth Games

Series of PR exercise is on the way underlining the gala opening that the Commonwealth Games could achieve, and it is being used as a pretext to create a world view that the charges of corruption be swept under the carpet, it is more like an Indian shaadi where every organizer has his cut of share and still the marriage is a grand event.

But a shaadi is more like a family affair, and CWG is not a family affair. There is involvement of huge amount of public money and it cannot be just wished away. the efforts on the part of the organizing committee to adorn themselves with plaudits forgets the fact that it is the common man working in the stadium who has his pride intact that worked relentlessly to make the opening of the games a great success. But is this common man being talked about at all! The jeering that Mr. Kalmadi received when he opened to deliver the speech said it all. The people of the country who were there in the inaugural ceremony had not come to support an individual but had braved all the drudgeries to show case to the world that in spite of all the problems, India still is a story whose time has arrived.

But the jeering also sent the message to the world that the Indian public now has taken upon itself to jeer those who are supposedly associated with corruption at such platform.  The opening ceremony is being compared with Beijing Olympics and based upon the opening ceremony the view is being floated into the background that now India should aspire and aim to host Olympics as well. What kind of a loot jamboree would it be, god forbid if it materializes.

The momentum against corruption should not be swept under the carpet, and once the games are over, serious investigations need to be launched into, and that too from the topmost office to the country. The message that has to go out to the world is that now India has come to a stage where it has zero tolerance to corrupt practices. Once this message is conveyed, automatically the corruption of the system would slowly come to a grounding halt. The moot point is will the government of the day bell the cat?

Tags: Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Games, Corruption, CWG, India, Indian Sports, Olympics, PR Exercise, Public Relations, Sports, Sports India