London will host the 2012 Olympics. In 2016, the Olympics is going to Rio di Janeiro. By 2020, when the Olympics is next due, I am sure India will be a fully developed country by then. Everybody is looking at 2020 as the bench mark for India really having come of age. If Rio di Janeioro can host an Olympics, I don’t see why we can’t.

You won’t get the Olympics right now in the next 10 years or so, but with the 2010 Commonwealth Games as a base, you can think of hosting the Olympics. Once we get through the Commonwealth, we will become a much more confident nation.

Of course, I cannot boast of hosting the Olympics right now. Frankly we haven't even thought of it as yet. There was a time when the IOA (Indian Olympic Association) did mention that we would like to bid for the Olympics. I don’t think they were asking my opinion really, but I said let’s do the Commonwealth well first.

I think once we are able to organise the Commonwealth Games, which has 78 countries and is the biggest sporting event held in India after the Asiad, then not only our confidence but the confidence of the International Olympic Association and those who decide on the sporting events, will also have become much more sure. Yes India can hold the Olympics and I don’t see any reason why we can’t.

Regarding priority areas, the timely completion of all projects, whether infrastructure or stadia, the conduct of the games, opening and closing ceremony, the roads have to be done, traffic management, athletes and players have to be made comfortable and medical attendance has to be top class. So, all aspects have to be taken care of; whether it is the food athletes eat or require, their calorific value and the travelling that athletes are supposed to do. So all this requires a lot of coordination and a very holistic approach. The spectator should remember this as the greatest spectacle they have seen.

It is not just what we think, it is also what the world thinks. If the world feels that we are not capable, then Olympics will not come here.

It is, as I said, the largest event and there are many imponderables, sometimes factors beyond anyone’s control, even beyond planning. What we have in Delhi is a multiplicity of authority. IOA has a very important role, the government of India has a role, the government of Delhi has a role, the municipal corporation of Delhi has a role, the NDMC has a role. Out of the 15 stadia, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) is looking after the main ones. We (Delhi government) have two, the MCD has one and the DDA has a few stadia.

The big challenge here is that it has to be coordinated well. Some roads are being looked at by us and some by the MCD. They must converge well. These are huge challenges.

This is what makes me, as I keep on saying, nervous. I know we are going to do it, everyone is doing their job, all plans are there, but sometimes you find DUAC (Delhi Urban Arts Commission) complaining about something. Sometimes someone else is complaining. Everything has been cleared but still these things keep happening, it makes one nervous of the improbable imponderables.

I don’t think it is fair to equate this with the Beijing Olympics. Olympic is far more challenging, the whole world is involved in it. Here there are 71 odd countries. So it is a restricted kind of game. Beijing did set a benchmark, but if you recall the Olympic Games in Athens, two or three weeks before Athens took place, everybody was in a panic, they said Athens was behind schedule and nothing is going to happen. It happened and happened very well.

When a nation responds to a responsibility which has been given to it or which it has taken, don't underestimate the will of the nation and the will of a people to do it. That is what I live by, people will certainly work, not only work but work extremely well and make a great success of these games.