A few years after the disastrous Commonwealth Games (CWG) of 2010, the swimming team from Uttarakhand, a relatively new state with inadequate infrastructure, applied for permission to train in one of the many Olympic-sized swimming pools that had been built or renovated — on which the authorities had spent (and part-pocketed) Rs 70,000 crore — in New Delhi. Why they needed permission to use public property is a mystery. Anyhow, it was refused. The swimmers practised their strokes for a forthcoming competitive fixture on straw mats. Even before the CWG had begun, there were scandals galore: paan-stained bathrooms at the Games village, pieces of the world’s ugliest “wrestling stadium” falling off, bridges collapsing… The scandals reverberated around the world with the international media gleefully picking up the CWG as yet another example of India’s inability to host anything of “world standards”. At the time, the ruling Congress — mainly Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit — had taken the flak, primarily from the Opposition BJP.
“Out of $700 billion, (the estimated total spent on the CWG), only $480.6 billion were spent on the athletes,” Nitin Gadkari had thundered, promising to bring up the Congress’ corruption in Parliament and to organise protests across the country. During the months of preparations for the Rio Olympics 2016, things looked promising. After all, the now ruling BJP had, among other incentives, promised all athletes — many from underprivileged backgrounds — a monthly pocket allowance of '1 lakh each for the duration of the Games. Why, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself declared his intention of improving conditions for sportspersons at the inauguration of a nationwide Reliance sports initiative. “From sports, we learn sportsman spirit,” he had said. “More than winning, sports helps you learn to deal with defeats. Sports helps you become a fighter.”
Unfortunately, Mr Modi’s vision is far from what actually played out on the ground in Rio, with most culprits belonging to his own party and government. Never mind the tallest promises that all netas make, nothing has changed in the wretched world of our sports and as long as greedy officials who have never lifted a 1 kg dumbbell in their lives continue to lord it over all regulatory bodies, nothing ever will. The few real sportsmen in Parliament — like Rajyavardhan Rathore — are handed portfolios that have nothing to do with sports. Others are “gifted” Rajya Sabha seats with no responsibility to attend it. (Sachin Tendulkar registered less than six per cent attendance in the Upper House last year). Consequently, familiar, cringeworthy scenes played out at Rio. Sprinter Dutee Chand arrived after an exhausting 36-hour flight in a cramped economy seat. With hardly any time to work off the tiredness and cramps before her first event, she failed to qualify. She rightfully blamed officials: they were sprawled on business class flat beds while the athletes huddled in economy.
If gymnast Dipa Karmakar came fourth in the vault finals, she has her hard work and not the sports ministry to thank. It refused to pay for her physiotherapist’s ticket to Brazil, terming it “wasteful expenditure”. But after she qualified for the final he was hastily flown in. In an interview, Karmakar described the wretched circumstances under which she had trained in India: a gym without a vaulting table, a makeshift pile of old mats, vermin and cockroaches. Karmakar didn’t even have a dress for the first round. Also, no shoes. And, as usual, there was plenty of public embarrassment for India at the hands of our travelling mantris and babus, who seemingly feel no remorse at shaming us, whenever they set foot on foreign shores. Officials attached to minister of sports Vijay Goel abused, pushed and bullied their way around the sports venue to click selfies with athletes.
Mr Goel suffered nonchalant amnesia over the names of our sports stars. Haryana state ministers spent a crore on a nine-member jamboree to Rio — on business class — ostensibly to “encourage” their players and “prepare” for some other forthcoming sports event. But where were they when Haryana athletes Vikas Krishan, Seema Antil, Ravinder Khatri and Hardeep Singh were performing? Watching the girls from Ipanema on the city’s legendary beach, of course! Our overworked officials also lodged in style: at five-star hotels, instead of the sparse Games Village where athletes reportedly neither had chairs nor TV sets in their rooms to watch their rivals in action. Shoes and hockey sticks for the national hockey team didn’t arrive on time, forcing the coach to make purchases at a local shop. Even if there was a delay why did the coach play local fixer? What were the accompanying hockey officials doing? The doctor for India’s Olympic contingent was allegedly a radiologist whose answer to serious sports injuries was reportedly a popular, prescription-free muscle relaxant.
Finally, at an Independence Day event hosted by the sports ministry at India’s consulate in Rio, athletes, who were asked to skip their dinner to attend the event, were served beer and peanuts by our “caring” officials. Is it any wonder that one exasperated player called India’s official presence at the Rio Olympics a “mockery of the system”? Despite all odds, our boys and girls did us proud. We may have won fewer medals than at the last Olympics, but weighing the odds stacked so heavily against our athletes, their achievements seem that much greater. But silver medallist P.V. Sindhu, shooter Abhinav Bindra and other athletes from well-to-do families have choices: pursuing and excelling in their chosen sports. What about hundreds of others among the vast pool of undiscovered genius across the country? Bollywood and ad agencies routinely smell gold at the sight of good-looking, superbly athletic young bodies. But athletes abandoning their passion for photo-shopping, make-up and sweat-spray is not a happy development. But it’s a bitter choice forced upon many only to sustain themselves and their families. After 70 years, our coffers are brimming over. And yet, greed and misuse of public money by officials seems ingrained in our genes. Congress or BJP? Forget it. Nothing has changed and nothing ever will.
