The Delhi lootfest

As the Helium filled blimp rose in the air in the Jawahar Lal Stadium, a 60,000 strong audience let out their oohs and aahs, clicking the spectacle in their Cameras. What followed that, left the audiences in the stadium and the TV screen awe-struck and gaping. With widespread allegations of corruptions preceding the games, no one had really expected such a flawless opening ceremony. The International media went to the extent of calling the Open  Ceremony better than Beijing could put up.

The next 11 days were full of enthusiasm and came as joyful for some and heartbreaking for the others at the same time. India managed to break its previous CWG medal record and secured the 2nd position in the Medal Tally. The Delhi 2010 games also saw a lot of records being broken and new ones being set. Overall the games were given the tag of 'Successful'.

However, the term successful itself is ambiguous. What exactly should be there in the games for it to be successful? Despite the fact that top athletes backed out, human rights were violated, tourists avoided coming to Delhi, incomplete work till the last minute, a CWG village full of filth, how on earth can we call such games 'Successful'? A more appropriate word would be Fiasco!

The official figure for the games expenditure(excluding the cost of the swanking new airport and metro) stands at 23,000 crores whereas the revenue the games have generated doesn't even touch 80 crores. Newspaper reports suggest that Delhites will have to pay for the games for the next 30 years as part of the various taxes. The cost of the the equipments and the renovation was inflated exponentially and a good amount of money went to the personal accounts of the highly placed people. Such cases of corruption should be treated severely with an iron fist and the guilty should be slapped with charges of treason.

The probe headed by the CVC is looking into the charges of fraud and has promised to punish the convicts. The report with the findings will be submitted in 3 months.

Among the many people who voraciously expressed their dissatisfaction with India holding the games was an Ex-Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyer who said that, if the money used for the games would've been used to strengthen and reinforce the infrastructure related to sports in our country, Indian athletes could've out shined countries like China, USA, Russia, Australia who perform exceedingly well and compete for the top notch in Olympics and World Championships.

The IOA has commenced the process for bidding for the 2019 Asian Games and speculation is rife that India will also bid for the 2020 Olympics.

Ending on a positive note with a hope that we'll learn from our mistakes and the next time we hold such an event, stringent and regular checks will not give us a chance to let others question our readiness and we ourselves will not commit a heinous crime like stealing the peoples hard earned money by an act of theft.