CWG 'shame' is fine, but what about daily life?
The last three months have seen cringe-worthy behaviour from all fields of our beautiful, huge, over-populated, 'developing' country. First the sports bodies involved with the Commonwealth Games, then the beauracracy involved with the sports bodies, and on top of it all, the press involved with all of the above, who outdid each other in claiming the 'first to have unearthed the scam'. Clap clap, congrats to you, you are up for the upcoming Peace Nobel for this monumental achievement. News seems to be the new entertainment - always on, unearthing 'breaking stories' hour after hour involving oil spills, games scams and Deepika Padukone's cat getting stuck up a tree. This arrival of 24x7 media hasn't exactly helped the world I feel, but that's a debate for another post.
So, as I was saying, there has been approximately INR 20,000 crore siphoned off the games so far. I have no clue how to type the new Rupee symbol - a symbol which represents our arrival on the world stage, our economic clout, and in this case, our unending corruption. It's a crying shame that the first widespread use of the new symbol was when those news items about 'Treadmills for INR 10 Lakhs' were splashed all over the pages of one of the above 'we saw it first' media houses. Just goes to show, you can change the symbol, but you can't change the people.
So now, unlike Beijing and later South Africa, the hosting of a games has mostly pulled down any respect India gained over the last 10 years. It's just been a case of the Emperor's New Clothes all along, India Shining, India and China, Neo-liberalization, all other associated bullcrap. And while all the attention has been rightly focussed on this monumental mess up, I have one minor question to anyone who cares to listen - What about the smaller people and the smaller 'somethings' that are given everyday.
Here's a small experiment. Someone please tell me the exact fee, as laid down by the law, for:
- Getting a driver's licence from a state-established RTO.
- Changing registration/paying a state's road tax (I don't get why the heck Road Tax is a state subject in the first place, but again, I digress)
- Getting a passport, including that very famous step of 'police verification'
- Getting a birth/marriage certificate.
2 comments:
why unlike beijing and SA? Even China and South Africa have burning issues that are screaming for the money (and the effort). just because its the OLYMPICS or the WORLD CUP, they can't be excused, no? :)
the commonwealth games have been a shame from the start - what with reports of schools being razed to the ground for space to even architects protesting the use of pink and purple on buildings everywhere, ruining the aesthetic appeal of the town.
I agree. There is outrage only when these big scams happen and the public feel cheated. we feel pride and relief at the continuing growth of the economy and relatively low impact of the recession, to walk out of our homes and see the same slums on the street we've seen for ages, the same people, to whom this so-called economic growth has meant nothing, made no difference to. they've probably felt cheated since 1991.
@Priti,
Unlike Beijing and SA where they were actually commended for how it was conducted. I'm not saying the countries themselves don't have other problems. Every country does :)
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