India gives the thumbs-up to Commonwealth Games

Controversies apart, a majority of Indians believes Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010 would be a success.
Allegations of corruption and gross mismanagement by the Suresh Kalmadi-headed organising committee (OC) and projects struggling to meet deadlines have not dampened the spirit of sports enthusiasts, who feel CWG projects would be completed on time and without hiccups.

As many as 65% of participants of an all-India survey conducted by AZ Research Partners for ‘DNA’ in August felt India would be ready in time to host CWG, 27% said “may be”, while 6% were sure Games projects would not be completed on time.

The survey was conducted online and over phone in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Patna, Raipur, Allahabad, Vijayawada, Kanpur, Cochin and Guwahati.

Most Indians (61%) expected the arrangements and quality of venues to be “acceptable”, while 11% felt the arrangements would be “world class”. At least 20% felt they would be “below acceptable level”, while 6% expected “very poor” arrangements.

Optimism apart, 58% felt the media expose of corruption and delay in CWG preparations was “completely correct”. One-third of the sample size of 5,100 respondents felt the media was “probably exaggerating”, while 6% preferred to sweep aside the media reports as “totally incorrect”.

A little over one-fourth of the participants (27%) opined that India will actually spend less than the budget for CWG, mainly because contractors would be fined for late deliveries. Two-thirds felt the expenditure would exceed the budget, while 38% said the country had already spent close to double the budget.

At least 14% said the actual cost would be a whopping 1,500% to 2,000% more than the budget, while 13% said it would be 500%-600% above the allocation.

A key reason perceived for the high cost was corruption, with 38% of those polled feeling so, while 17% pinned the blame on inflation over the past three years and 26% said the  budget itself was unrealistic. Nine per cent of the participants blamed it on inefficiency.

Most participants (42%) held Kalmadi responsible for the corruption, 36% blamed it on the Union sports ministry, 33% on the Union government, 18% on the Delhi government, 17% on the CWG organising committee and 11% on Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

A whopping 93% of the participants felt Indian athletes would do well at the Games.

More than half the participants (56%) felt CWG was a good opportunity to showcase India, while 18% said it’s a waste of
resources.

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar’s statement that he hoped CWG fails did not go down well most participants, though 42% felt it was “sad but true”, 21% said “well said”, and 26% found it anti-national.