The 19th Commonwealth Games to be held in the capital of India this October is creating more nervousness than excitement. Each day rings in news that Delhi may not be ready for the mega-sporting event scheduled to start from October 3. Delhi is holding on to the last straws with venues, streetscaping, laying of underground cables, drainage, flyovers and highways that are still under construction. The ‘sacred’ river Yamuna is a key example of the apathy and neglect with which the Commonwealth Games preparations are being dealt with. In spite of the hundreds of crores spent on the river by the Delhi government, the Yamuna still resembles a giant sewer. The worst part of it is that the Games Village overlooks the river.

Another thing that is raining misery on the build-up to the Games is the monsoons. Newly constructed stadiums for sports such as table tennis, squash, badminton and shooting range are already crumbling under the showers. These damages have put back the construction by at least 10-15 days. There is seepage and flooding in some of the spanking-new venues, while the roofs of many have collapsed.

The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which is the main venue for the Games, is still getting finishing touches. Contrast this to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006, where almost all projects were completed two years before the opening ceremony. The recently concluded Fifa World Cup is another case in point, where South Africa put together an exceptionally well- planned tournament with top notch venues and excellent management. The Beijing Olympics of 2008 were on a much more massive scale than the Commonwealth Games Delhi is preparing for, and yet Beijing pulled of a remarkable show and proved to the world that China has arrived.

With only a couple of months for the Commonwealth Games to begin, we are still hearing about project delays and cost overruns. Officials involved in the preparations concede that many construction projects, catering and related contracts, which should have been awarded in early 2009, were signed 12 months later at significantly higher cost, indicating large-scale corruption. According to a Central Vigilance Commission report, almost all organisations executing infrastructure work for the Games have flouted rules in tenders and increased their prices. As per the assessment report, large-scale procedural violations, including fraud, have been noticed in 14 projects. Consequently, even the inflated $3 billion outlay for the Games – almost three times the initial cost of $1.4 billion — has escalated.

Yes, it can be agreed that with the new world-class Terminal 3 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, and the expansion of the Metro line to more areas of the capital, a huge feat has been achieved. But at what cost? Unfortunately, India’s bid to portray the national capital as a global sporting hub in the wake of the Commonwealth Games is coming at the expense of its poorest. According to reports, more than 700 crore has been diverted from funds meant for the scheduled castes. The Commonwealth Games organisers are frantically trying to pull off a glitch-free event to showcase emerging India, but they need to buckle up or their entire drive of portraying India as a superpower might well be embarrassingly mangled to shreds.