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This paper was developed while I was a visiting fellow at the Department
of Anthropology at Yale University. I am grateful to K. Sivaramakrishnan for
his encouragement and support. At Yale, I was fortunate to meet Bill Kelly
whose expertise in the anthropology of sports was invaluable for directing
me towards a new literature. I am also grateful to Nikhil Anand, Jon Shapiro
Anjaria, Lalit Batra, Asher Ghertner, and Kai Friese. A preliminary version
of this paper was presented in Seattle at the University of Washingtons
conference on Metropolis and Micropolitics in May 2009, where I benefited
from discussion with the participants.
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for my country. Its a big business opportunity, many jobs for many
young people.1
From the beginning, discussions about the Games in Delhi have
focused almost entirely on two aspects: hosting the Games represents
the coming of age of India as a super-power and Delhi as a worldclass city. This symbolic value accompanies a related discourse
about the Games as an opportunity to create an infrastructure that
would attract tourists, boosting local jobs and incomes. Missing from
the media coverage is any discussion of sports, or the Games as an
opportunity to inspire and invest in athletic talent.2 However, much
attention is being given to improving Delhis sports infrastructure
to standards that meet the specifications of the Commonwealth
Games. This includes building four new air-conditioned stadiums
and refurbishing eight existing ones built for the Asian Games in
1982, and creating a new Games Village complex to house the 8,500
athletes and officials who will be in Delhi during the two-week period
of the Games.
More construction is entailed to provide world-class transport for
Games participants and tourists. The Delhi airport is being expanded
and upgraded by a joint venture between the Airports Authority
of India and GMR Fraport, a German firm. The Delhi Metro Rail
Corporation, a public sector firm with Japanese collaboration, is
laying new underground and overhead rail lines to link the airport
to the city and the centre to its eastern and southern suburbs. The
Delhi Transport Corporation is buying 4,000 low-floor buses of
international standards. To provide suitable conditions for their
operation, private contractors of the Public Works Department
and the municipal authorities are re-laying roads to world-class
specifications and also sprucing them up with new lights, redesigned
1
India to host 2010 Commonwealth Games, The Hindu, November 15,
2003. http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/11/15/stories/2003111507551800.
htm (accessed 6 October 2009).
2
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Sports Minister, was removed from his post
for his outspoken criticism of the Games as a colossal waste of money
which would have been better spent in creating sports facilities across the
country for ordinary citizens, especially students. See interview in Covert,
18 July 2009.
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Amita Baviskar
3
To accommodate budget tourists, the Delhi government has launched
a bed-and-breakfast scheme enlisting private home-owners with spare
rooms.
4
New Delhi Residents told to Improve Manners Ahead of the Commonwealth
Games, The Telegraph, 23 September 2009, http://www.telegraph.
co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/6223394/New-Delhi-residents-toldto-improve-manners-ahead-of-Commonwealth-Games.html (accessed 7
October 2009).
143
5
Learn Manners, Behave Better, Chidambaram tells Delhi, The Hindustan
Times, September 22, 2009. http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/
newdelhi/Chidambaram-to-Delhiites-Learn-manners-behave-better/Article1456689.aspx (accessed on 7 October 2009).
6
Delhi to Banish Beggars Ahead of the Commonwealth Games, The
Times of India, 1 September 2009, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
news/city/delhi/Delhi-to-banish-beggars-ahead-of-Commonwealth-Games/
articleshow/4959566.cms (accessed 7 October 2009).
7
A Boost for MCD Stray Dog Sterilization Drive, The Hindu, 12 July
2009, http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/12/stories/2009071260270500.
htm (accessed 7 October 2009). Among the more bizarre jobs created by the
Games is that of the municipal official appointed to count the organs that
are removed when dogs are sterilised, to ensure that NGOs do not make
fake claims to get money from the municipality.
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removed from his post.10 The governments at the centre and in Delhi
state came out clearly in favour of the Games as an event meant
to showcase the nations new image as an emerging superpower.
Despite this support, key projects have been extremely slow to take
off. Delhi is notorious for the multiplicity of its regulatory institutions,
which hampers coordination around issues of changing land use,
environmental clearance, land development and construction. After
land was made available and contracts awarded, the economy was hit
by the global financial crisis of 2008. Its most severe impact was felt
by the construction industry which found that its contracts for sportsrelated development were no longer profitable due to the rising costs
of steel and other raw materials. Private firms were also affected by
the decline in credit availability, making planned investments harder
to finance. The difficulties of undertaking large capital investments in
an adverse economic climate were acutely felt by the tourism industry
which also had to drastically downgrade its projections of the number
of visitors expected during the Games.
The government has dealt with this unexpected crisis by making
good the financial shortfall experienced by private firms and stepping
in with additional support. The biggest bail-out occurred with
Emaar MGF, the Dubai-based real estate developer contracted to
build the Games Village. Under a PublicPrivate Partnership (PPP)
arrangement, the DDA had allotted 27 acres of prime land for free to
the company to build 1168 luxury flats to house athletes and officials.
Under the terms of the contract, the firm would sell two-thirds of
the flats while DDA would sell the remainder. After the financial
downturn, the cash-strapped company appealed to the government
for help and the DDA responded by giving it an interest-free loan of
US$ 100 million (Rs 500 crore), to be repaid in the form of additional
flats.11 This arrangement directly contradicted the Urban Development
Ministrys previously held position that there was no provision for
extending a loan to the contractor under the PPP model.12
10
See footnote 2.
DDA Gives Rs 500 Crore Loan to Emaar MGF, Economic Times, 13
September 2009, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/TheSunday-ET/Companies/Emaar-MGFs-32-flats-in-games-village-to-be-readyby-October/articleshow/5004556.cms (accessed 7 October 2009).
12
See statement by Urban Development Secretary, M. Ramachandran,
in DDA Might Bail Out Emaar, Indian Express, 8 January 2009, http://
www.expressindia.com/latest-news/games-village-dda-might-bail-outemaar/408094 (accessed 7 October 2009).
11
147
Even before the global financial crisis, it was clear that the costeffectiveness of the Games or the burden that they would place on
the public exchequer were not major concerns for the government.
In 2007, the estimated cost of the Games and related construction was
estimated to be US$ 1.35 billion (Rs 6,783 crore), equal to a third of
the entire annual budget for Delhi state in that year. Such expenditure
on Games-related items represents a huge opportunity cost in terms
of forgoing urgently-needed investments in sanitation, education,
health, and low-income housing in a city of 14 million people. Public
expenditure to create gigantic sports infrastructure that is likely to fall
into disuse, as has been the case with the stadiums built for the 1982
Asian Games, offers no possibilities of economic return after the initial
spurt of job creation during the construction phase. Nor was there
any discussion of exactly how much revenue would be generated
by the Games through broadcasting rights, corporate sponsorship,
tickets, tourism, and related spin-offs. According to the Delhi Chief
Minister, People say the Games will pay for themselves, a claim
that is belied by all the available data.13 In 2009, the estimated cost
of Delhis makeover for the Games had shot up to US$ 13.3 billion,
10 times the estimated amount in 2007, and 31 times more than the
bid estimate of US$ 422 million in 2003.14 The actual expenditure is
likely to be far greater. However, no questions have been asked in the
media about the wisdom of spending on this scale on what is, at the
end of the day, a non-essential activity. Nor are there any calculations
about how the costs will be recovered and from whom.
Such insouciance about the economic viability of the Games is
striking since other government expenditure is stringently monitored
and critically appraised. For instance, the National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme, the flagship programme of the United Progressive
Alliance government at the centre, was allocated US$ 78 billion
(Rs 39,000 crore) in the 2009 budget.15 This amount, which is only
13
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Amita Baviskar
six times the 2009 estimate for the Delhi Games but will benefit 44.7
million of the poorest households in the country, has been at the
centre of enormous controversy with reams written in policy and
media reports about how such massive spending threatens the fiscal
stability of the state. Similar critical analyses can be easily found
for all other major items of government expenditure. Yet no such
standards are applied to the Games. The consensus seems to be that
the Games are above such mundane concerns; their importance
for securing national prestige places them beyond the calculus of
economic benefits and costs. However, an examination of the flows
of government subsidies and concessions shows that, in the name
of national honour, the Games chief financial beneficiaries have
been corporate firms in the real estate development, construction,
transportation, and hotel sectors. For them, the Games represent an
accelerated and expanded opportunity to profit without having to
undergo the rigours of regulatory processes or of media scrutiny.
The delays in undertaking the projects and the consequent anxiety
about meeting the October 2010 deadline have enabled the remaining
vestiges of project evaluation and monitoring to be swept aside.
Among the major benefits claimed for the Games has been the
prospect of expanding employment opportunities. According to a
study by Building and Woodworkers International, a total of 500,000
jobs were likely to be created in Games-related activities. Of these,
100,000 were estimated to be for unskilled construction workers.16
In India, at the best of times, the rights of construction workers to
fair terms, safety measures, social security, and collective bargaining
are respected only in the breach. With the rush to finish Gamesrelated projects on time, while worker compensation has risen
slightly, work conditions have become more hazardous with safety
standards being set aside and workers urged to work round the clock
to push the projects ahead at top speed. Human rights organisations
have documented the unsafe and exploitative conditions under
16
149
17
A similar effort to highlight the grim circumstances of migrant construction workers from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh was started before the
1982 Asian Games when the spurt in building activities brought an estimated
one million labourers to the city (Baviskar 2003; also see Peoples Union for
Democratic Rights v. Union of India and Others [A.I.R. 1982 S.C. 1437]).
Denied legal, affordable and adequate shelter, most migrants ended up
improvising housing close to the sites where they worked. These settlements
in the shadows of gigantic stadiums and flyovers flourished for the next 20
years until they were demolished and their residents evicted to make way for
the next round of construction before the Commonwealth Games 2010.
18
Metro Tragedy Claims Six, The Hindu, 13 July 2009, http://www.
thehindu.com/2009/07/13/stories/2009071360210100.htm (accessed 7
October 2009).
19
Violation of Labour Laws at Games Sites, Court Told, The Hindu, 20
March 2010, http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/20/stories/2010032063660300.
htm (accessed 24 March 2010).
20
See http://2010commonwealthgamesindia.blogspot.com/ for coverage
of all Games-related news coverage, including environmental controversies,
and www.yamunajiyeabhiyaan.blogspot.com for details of the debate
regarding construction of the Games Village on the Yamuna floodplain.
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21
It is a matter of no small irony that the local residents opposing the
clearing of the Siri Fort forest happen to be the beneficiaries of exactly the
same process in the 1980s when the first large piece of forest was cleared
to construct the Games Village for the Asian Games. After Asiad82, the
DDA sold the flats to public sector firms and individuals, converting the Siri
Fort Games Village into an affluent enclave housing some of the citys top
bureaucrats and other members of the power elite. It is the same residents
who now oppose further construction for fear that it will adversely affect
the quality of their life.
22
Siri Fort Games Project Gets SCs Okay, Indian Express, 28 April 2009,
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/siri-fort-games-project-gets-scsokay/451941/0 (accessed 7 October 2009).
23
SC Okays Complex at Siri Fort, Times of India, 28 April 2009, http://
epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Layout/Includes/TOINEW/ArtWin.asp?Fr
om=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=CAP%2F2009%2F04
%2F28&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T&PageLabel=2&EntityId=Ar00206&AppN
ame=1&FontSize=l1 (accessed 7 October 2009).
151
24
For an examination of the rivers cultural and ecological role in the life of
the city, including threats to its integrity, see Amita Baviskar, Once There Was
a River, Outlook City Limits, 1 December 2007, http://www.outlookindia.
com/full.asp?fodname=20071211&fname=city+limit+CS&sid=1. James
Heitzman and Smriti Srinivas (2005) detail similar processes of transformation
around lakes such as the Sampangi tank and Koramangala tank in Bangalore,
which were used by the Tigala community of horticulturalists for irrigation
and as the site for rituals around the Karaga cultural festival, before they were
drained to construct sports facilities, including those for the National Games
of 1997. Ironically, preparations for the Karaga festival involved wrestling
and gymnastic exercises, local sports activities that were marginalised by the
national-level games.
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At the same time, the distance between the Games Village and the
main stadiums necessitated the building of elaborate road works, including
a brand-new elevated corridor, another opportunity for an infrastructure
project that benefits private contractors in the guise of decongesting roads.
On the politics of traffic and road management in Delhi, see Baviskar
(forthcoming).
26
No Bar on Commonwealth Games Work: Supreme Court, The Hindu, 31
July 2009, http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/31/stories/2009073150210100.
htm (accessed 7 October 2009).
153
Games was closed. The only topic of discussion since has been
whether Delhi will manage to meet the October 2010 deadline and
make a respectable showing before the rest of the world.27
The Opposition leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party kept trying to
raise the issue of corruption and wastage of public funds, but did not get
much media attention.
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155
28
However, these connections were vehemently denied by Jagmohan
who, as the then Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi, was the chief architect of the
citys makeover at a time when it was still a Union Territory with a bureaucrat
at its helm (interviewed by the author, 21 June 2007).
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That is, while the cultural content of what is on offer may vary
different styles of food, handicrafts, performance, or architecture they are
packaged and presented in the same format. Thus, street fairs in Bangkok
or Delhi or Edinburgh will be identical in their structure. For a different
interpretation, see Black (2008: 471).
157
of disbelief. That is, the scepticism and scrutiny around the issue of
public purpose, which takes institutionalised form in mandatory
procedures such as benefitcost analyses and environmental impact
assessments, is set aside. For instance, before the Sydney Olympics of
2000, the New South Wales government passed a law in 1995 banning
city residents from going to court on grounds of environmental and
planning violations by the proposed Olympic projects. Ironically, for
an event promoted as the Green Games, all Games-related projects
were waived the required environmental impact statements (Hall
2006: 62). In the case of Delhi too, as with the Siri Fort and Yamuna
floodplain instances, the requirement of due process has been
suspended to accelerate projects which are implicitly assumed to be
in the public interest and therefore beyond criticism.
By their construction of a community of interest, the Commonwealth
Games generate social solidarities, mobilising consent and
collective action around urban space. These solidarities demand
closer consideration because they provide important insights into
the life of a city. Even when they mainly benefit elites, mega-events
are image- and identity-building exercises that signal a citys upward
mobility from Third World to world-class, where the host is repositioned as accomplished, cosmopolitan and business-friendly
(Black 2008: 470). They are also occasions for the promotion of a
celebratory sense of national [and urban] unity and pride (ibid.). In
that sense, their audience is as much local as global for, in the process
of representing the city to the world, the Games transform the urban
body politics sense of itself.
This is partly a consequence of the character of sports as a set of
ritualized, rationalized commercial spectacles and bodily practices
that create opportunities for expressive performances, disruptions of
the everyday world and affirmations of social status and belonging
(Horne and Manzenreiter 2006: 1). As Hall points out, criticizing the
hosting of mega-events isto be doubly damned. For one contends
not only with the neoliberal discourse of competitionbut also
with the mythologies of the social benefits of sport. The inherent
belief of many that sport is good for you, makes for better citizens,
creates pride in the community, and generates a positive image is
hard to overcome (2006: 67). These assumptions are so pervasive
and taken-for-granted that, in the case of the Commonwealth Games
in Delhi, they have not even been raised in public debate, let alone
challenged.
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