Mikes Sling
Mr Hooper, stick to your lane
Mr Hooper, don’t tread on other territories, stick to your lane
Commonwealth Games Federation Chief Executive Mike Hooper’s remark that big size population of India is the cause for traffic snarls cannot be taken lying low as he, of late, is treading on other territories other than the common wealth games.
India has been forced into taking a cowardly stand in not retaliating strongly. For a New Zealander who needs brushing up his etiquettes more has been frequenting the country for the last many months now and passing off the buck on the Central and Delhi government reflects the panic in his attitude. It is not India’s population that causes snarls in Delhi but its buying capacity for vehicles that cause these snarls.
A Games lane has already been reserved. Delhi could have also ordered for plying of odd and even number vehicle every alternate day as it was done during Beijing Olympics but it did not thinking of those who had just one vehicle in the household.
Agreed that the pace of preparedness was very slow and Hooper, supposedly monitoring the progress, sat like duck and blew the whistle at a time when the already demoralized work agencies went into a vortex of confusion following the media storming session on the broadcast channels.
That Hooper could muster such temerity to sling humiliations on the host country has been propelled by the shameful and shoddy handling of the Commonwealth Games by the trio – Sports Minister M.S. Gill, Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dixit and Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi who took things very lightly and came to a blind alley in the end giving chance to people like Hooper to raise the carpet under their feet.
A nation that has been conditioned to bear the brunt of the visiting foreigners because of the Athithi devo bhavah (translated ’The guest is God’ ) gesture, finds itself impotent to react. Indian news channels have of course taken up the cudgels on behalf of the ‘vast’ Indians and gone pinning down Mr Hooper but not before splitting India’s image to pieces.
This was the time when Indian television news channels could have been more responsible and brought in ex sportspersons who had enjoyed the hospitality of international games organizers to speak out on the subject of hygiene and infrastructure. Murad Ali and a few more did come on the camera and expressed that they did not face any unhygienic problem many among them had been put up in smaller rooms than the existing one in the village. But the comments died down in the presentation thrill of the news related to India getting a beating.
The South African High Commissioner’s claim of finding a snake lacing it with a comment like ‘ I don’t know whether it was an Indian’ smacked more of a jeer than an observation. The timing of the sting operation’ by an Australian journalist citing the breach in the security at Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium (the venue of opening and closing ceremonies) is also questionable. To many, it seems a concerted efforts to defame and humiliate India on the eve of the games.
The voice of India’s most respected sprinter Milkha Singh who lashed out at the foreign athletes for making too much noise about the living conditions at the Commonwealth Games Village, saying that they can stay at hotels if they don’t like the accommodation, did not get many followers.
About the Author
Nitin Saxena is a Delhi based jounalist with an experience of over 30 years in newspapers and magazines
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