NYTimes Comment #40.
EthicalDemocracy
NYC
October 2nd, 2010
11:18 pm
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/world/asia/03india.html
Let the Games Begin (collective sigh of embarrassed relief)
The fact is, India is finally, finally, finally ready to open the CWG Games, right on deadline.
Read the relentless, expose-bent, hard-hitting Indian media online.
India is ready. Just Barely. Finally.
So Jim Yardley's reporting is a trifle belated, understandably so.
Jim Yardley hits the nail on the head when he notes:
\"The answer, to many of those involved with the games, is that India’s political culture, if prized for its commitment to democracy, often seems unable to transcend its own dysfunction.\"
He adds:There were at least 21 governmental or quasi-governmental agencies involved in preparing for the Games, yet none were ultimately in charge, forcing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to try to personally take command as things went awry in August. Analysts say the absence of a clear line of authority translated into an absence of urgency and accountability.
Moreover, crucial figures in organizing the games had almost no experience in staging international events and were products of an insular Indian political culture where cronyism and nepotism often trump competence. End of quote.
Yardley's right.
As an Indian, I can say from lived experience (and I am in India volunteering five months every year), that almost every task/ venture/enterprise, is fraught with needless and wasteful uncertainty, delays, obstructionism, red tapism, ineptness, corruption, lack of basic hygiene in public spaces, overcrowding, etc etc, whether it's a train trip from point A to Point B, 35 km apart, or a rocket launch by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), or in this case the organizing of the CWG.
India Exasperates, India Endures, India Improves, Incredible India!
Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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New York Times copyrighted article by Jim Yardley and Hari Kumar
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/world/asia/03india.html
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