[sustran] This is no model for development: the "Neoliberal Games" in India

Todd Edelman edelman at greenidea.eu
Sun Nov 7 07:52:43 JST 2010


This is no model for development: the "Neoliberal Games" in India

from Praful Bidwai, former senior editor of the Times of India

http://www.tni.org/article/no-model-development-neoliberal-games-india

/The flawed neoliberal notion behind India's hosting of the Commonwealth 
Games, that 'development' starts with attracting foreign capital 
investment - has brought only corruption and the destruction of 
communities to Dehli./

The Commonwealth Games have proved the Cassandras right. Every single 
dire forecast and dismal prediction has turned out to be correct and 
every dark fear has come true. The mis-planning and mismanagement of the 
event was gross, the scale of corruption staggering, the profligate 
spending on the international sports bureaucracy unparalleled, and the 
brutalisation of Delhi and its suburbs complete.

Even for the Games' organisers and supporters, the overall balance-sheet 
is at best blotted and ambivalent---witness the mutual recrimination. 
The balance-sheet is abysmally negative for the Games' many direct 
victims---including the workers who toiled at near-starvation wages to 
complete the stadia, the one lakh families that were summarily evicted, 
and the beggars who were illegally incarcerated---, and the indirect 
victims, comprising the entire population of the Capital, which suffered 
acute civic distress, traffic disruption and an overbearing display of 
hubris and police power.

India set out to impress the world as a rival to China in hosting a 
sports mega-spectacle. It ended up firmly etching the images of a 
collapsed bridge near the Nehru stadium and filthy toilet bowls and 
soiled bedsheets in the Games village on the minds of the international 
audience. These were barely relieved by the relatively smooth conduct of 
the Games under unprecedented surveillance.

Sections of the media have tried to put a gloss on the Games' colossal 
failures by terming the opening ceremony a grand success and by pleading 
that despite numerous hitches, everything ultimately went off OK thanks 
to the Indian art of jugaad, for which the world grudgingly admires 
India. And didn't India come out Number Two in the medals ranking?!

But everything didn't go off OK. Many athletes dropped out for a variety 
of reasons including security fears. The Games failed in their stated 
objective of promoting tourism and showcasing India's culture. Winning 
medals wasn't a goal.

It was not OK to splurge the equivalent of the entire annual budget of 
the government's largest social programme, the National Rural Employment 
Guarantee Act.*It was not OK to further distort urban development by 
promoting elitist transportation *and pricey housing along Delhi's 
radial corridors. It was certainly not OK to threaten the survival of 
the Yamuna by building right in its flood-plains. Any menace to the 
river will imperil Delhi and scores of other cities, producing disasters 
that could make the 2005 Mumbai floods look like a picnic.

Some people set much store by the inquiry ordered under former 
Comptroller and Auditor General VK Shunglu. Many hope that Games 
Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi, characterised as the 
villain of the piece, will be fixed. They feel encouraged at the 
discovery of evidence that a construction company was paid twice over 
for the same work. Contractors have been told not to dismantle 
assemblies/buildings and thus destroy evidence. So the government 
seemingly means business.

Let's put this in perspective. The Games were approved in 2003. But 
nothing was done for years to lay the ground or begin construction of 
different facilities. This is a favourite tactic of corrupt contractors 
and babus: delay things till there's panic and then you can push 
anything through in the name of fire-fighting, somehow "getting things 
done"---regardless of the cost. Involved here was not just the OC, but 
many layers of Central and Delhi bureaucrats and municipal and other 
authorities. The causes and consequences of these "mother" delays and 
cost overruns won't be investigated.

As for corruption in procurement of material, from ashtrays to 
earth-movers, Shunglu can at best demand to know if there was 
competitive bidding. He won't find it easy to refute the pre-planned 
answer that the time available was too short, or a particular product of 
quality is only made by one manufacturer. What certainly won't come to 
light is "hidden contracts" or "private treaty" arrangements: quiet 
transfers of huge sums to media houses and programming companies for 
publicity, with the records showing straightforward commercial deals.

As for Kalmadi, he won't be easily fazed by the inquiry. He is a 
seasoned collector of funds for political parties and knows that the 
Congress would expect him to contribute to its electoral kitty soon. So 
we are unlikely to see many heads roll.

Meanwhile, the Western (especially Anglo-Saxon) world's leadership will 
have lowered India's ranking by a notch or two. Not many notches, 
because unlike our elite, it was never going to judge India by the 
Games. It had low expectations of them in the first place. This 
corresponds to its general perception of India's dualist complex of 
poverty and wealth with corruption, and its experience with aggressive 
Indian businessmen (who too practise jugaad). The only new factor was 
the open plunder of money belonging to India's poor public by a 
rapacious contractor-bureaucrat-sports-czar mafia. With its pillage of 
India, the elite has inflicted further damage upon itself.

-- 

Todd Edelman
Green Idea Factory,
a member of the OPENbike team

Mobile: ++49(0)162 814 4081

edelman at greenidea.eu
www.greenidea.eu
todd at openbike.se
www.openbike.se

Skype: toddedelman

Urbanstr. 45
10967 Berlin
Germany

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