CWG - A Sordid Reality Show

India has long been struggling to rid itself of the seemingly inextricable images of filth, dirt and corruption that have clung to it like a leeches ever since it embarked upon a journey of reinventing itself on its own post independence. The last two decades have seen the Indian psyche undergoing a pleasant change with governments, corporations and individuals committing themselves to a quality of life hitherto unseen on Indian shores. The endeavors of a vast majority of Indians towards mending the many flaws in the Indian social, political and economic systems have begun to bear some fruit, with the world at large viewing India as a symbol of something other than its clichéd shortcomings, and Brand India beginning to get its due respect on foreign turfs. So, it hurts all the more, when one hears and reads about the embarrassing fiasco that the build-up to the Commonwealth Games 2010 had thrown up, borne of a few unscrupulous and corrupt individuals, inflicting an unkind cut upon the country’s image, which has taken so many painstaking years to brush up. It would hardly surprise anybody to know that money laundering and corruption are ineffaceable aspects of Indian politics, but that Kalmadi and his associates have put the honour of the country at stake in their perennial pursuit of illegal wealth, hoping that the world would be none the wiser, points to unpatriotic behavior, and cannot, and should not ever be condoned. To the utter dismay of all and sundry, even as the murk kept flowing out of the CWG village, the smug arrogance and apathy of the CWG organizers, Kalmadi and Co., brushing every mishap and every sordid condition aside with nonchalant statements that range from ridiculous to hilarious, managed to shift international focus from the country’s main street of prosperity and growth to its squalid back alleys of filth, corruption and depravity. The CWG 2010 had threatened to become more a reality show on India than anything else. The Government of India (read PM) needs to abandon its passivity and work towards restoration of the impaired dignity of the country. Swift and exemplary punitive action must be taken against people like Kalmadi to discourage others of his ilk from harboring such insidious aspirations.