people politics policy performance
Games Politicians Play
A
Rs 70,608
crore
jamboree
Yes, that is the actual bill for
the Commonwealth Games—
more than 114 times the original
calculation made in 2003—when
you include all event-specific
projects. A new book reveals the
real story behind the financial
and governance mess.
Nalin Mehta and Boria Majumdar country. Fuelled by the unre- is with the manner in which controls – Ministry of Sports,
lenting fear of global ridicule much of this work has been Ministry of Home Affairs, Min-
that so drives our weak egos driven, the priorities which istry of Urban Development,
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– and by the colour of money have shaped it—and they have Ministry of Tourism, Govern-
he Commonwealth – politicians, bureaucrats and not always been driven by only ment of Delhi, Planning Com-
Games have been India’s sports czars have taken altruistic desires—the people mission, New Delhi Municipal
dismissed by many the citizens of Delhi on a ride who have shaped it and the di- Corporation (NDMC), Munici-
as a posthumous that will change their city for- rection in which the Games are pal Corporation of Delhi (MCD),
celebration of a ever. Notions of a fragile na- taking Delhi and India. Sports Authority of India (SAI),
long-forgotten Em- tional pride are inherent in Delhi Development Authority
pire. Others have mistakenly this debate. India must show ‘Many things were not (DDA), the Organising Commit-
played up their potential to re- its best face, we are told. Del- factored in before’ tee and so on. There are sever-
vive Indian sport, offering rosy hi has been dug up, bamboos So, how much will the Common- al high-level committees to co-
visions of an assembly line of have been brought in from the wealth Games cost us? That is ordinate their work, but as it
Indian sportsmen and women northeast to hide its poor and the first big question that this often happens in government,
turning us, overnight, into the the organisers have had a free book grapples with. It is not many things remain unclear to
next China. This is all just win- run on many things. an easy question to answer be- the very end. The result is that
dow dressing. At their heart, This book [Sellotape Legacy: cause the work is spread across even many among those in-
the Commonwealth Games Delhi and the Commonwealth diverse sectors and the money volved in organising the Games
are about the politics of devel- Games’, New Delhi] is the story is being spent by a bewildering do not have the full financial
opment and the raging ambi- of the politics of these Games. morass of multiple agencies. picture in front of them, with
tions of a rising India that so It is the story of the money that To enter the story of the Com- each government agency pur-
animate the middle classes and has been spent on it and how monwealth Games is to enter suing its own targets.
many decision makers in this it has been spent. Our concern into a labyrinth of overlapping The financing of the
38 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010
square at all with any of the
other financial data. But he was
way up in Delhi’s power circle
and clearly knew what he was
talking about. So we asked him
for a detailed breakdown and
there it was in fine print: Rs
65,550 crore clearly marked in
an internal Delhi government
note on what it calls ‘Common-
wealth Games-related work’.
The state government subse-
quently published these figures
officially and when clubbed to-
gether with other costs, they
pushed the total amount to
more than Rs 70,000 crore.
Our problem was that be-
tween 2003 and 2009, this
estimate on infrastructure
spending calculated by Sheila
Dikshit’s government did not
figure in any of the data sub-
mitted by successive sports
ministers in parliament or in
the internal records of the or-
ganising committee that were
made available to us. This new
information, passed on by the
office of Delhi’s chief secre-
tary, had us completely flum-
moxed. Why was it invisible?
A close analysis of the financial
data reveals that the Games
infrastructure budgets sub-
mitted in parliament between
2003 and 2008 had only listed
a little over Rs 1,300 crore (for
building civic infrastructure)
Commonwealth Games has had shot up by more than six Comptroller and Auditor Gen- against the Delhi government’s
been the subject of parliamen- times from the original figure. eral provided a calculation of name. This was the amount
tary questioning since 2004. By 2008, the minister of sports about Rs 13,000 crore. This was that the Delhi government
Parliamentary records show was estimating a figure of over more than 20 times the original said it needed extra funding
that at the time of government Rs 7,000 crore and in 2009, the cost estimate and even this fig- for, asking the Planning Com-
approval for the Games in ear- ure did not include spending by mission for a grant. This was
ly 2003, the Games budget es- many agencies. If you were run- the amount that got reflected
timate had been only Rs 617.5 The Delhi of 2010 ning a company, such sharp cost in budget estimates by sports
crore. This was a very prelimi-
nary original estimate and the
is a very different overruns would, in most cases,
be seen as management failure.
ministers in parliament, in-
stead of the state government’s
Vajpayee government agreed place from the But this is only half the story. total Games-related estimate.
to fund any future shortfalls In early 2009, we were dis- The Delhi government and oth-
between revenue and expen- Delhi of 1982 but cussing these rocketing es- er agencies were spending far
diture. It was a virtual blank one thing has timates with a senior Delhi more from their own coffers –
cheque. By March 2003, when government official when he the CAG also pointed this out
Delhi submitted its official not changed: dropped a bombshell. We had – but this spending escaped all
bid, the cost estimates had tri-
pled to Rs 1,895.3 crore. As
money is aplenty met about something else over
lunch on a lazy Sunday after-
other reporting. The organis-
ing committee and central gov-
Sunil Dutt, the sports minister and everybody noon. The Games came up in ernment budget records, there-
at the time, told the Lok Sabha passing and he listened to our fore, never reflected the rest of
in 2004, everybody knew that wants to be in calculations before calmly the Rs 65,550 crore that was be-
these were only early projec-
tions that could only go up lat-
on the party. pointing out: “The total Games
spending on city infrastructure
ing spent on the Games. If you
include this amount, overall
er. By 2005, the estimated costs is Rs 65,550 crore.” It didn’t Games expenditure estimates
www.GovernanceNow.com 39
What a fancy
shoot up to a whopping Rs entire expenditure. For in-
70,608 crore. This is more than stance, the crores being spent
114 times the original calcula- on building new hotels, on the
DU hostel!
tion made in 2003! Games Village by Emaar and
Some might say that much of elsewhere by the private sec-
the money would have been tor on its own or in public–pri-
spent anyway. Projects like vate partnerships are not part
new power stations account of the budgets reproduced
India lied to the CGF that the Games Village
for nearly half of this budget here. Remember also that the would be turned into students hostel.
and is it misleading to account central government has given
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for these in a CWG estimate? funds to the organising com-
No, it is not. There is good rea- mittee as an unsecured loan to here were structural reasons for the quagmire Del-
son why the office of Delhi’s be repaid only after revenues hi found itself in, just a year before the Games. The
chief secretary chose to put start coming in. story of the Games Village characterises all that
all these costs under the head- Suresh Kalmadi defends him- went wrong and deserves a close look. In 2003,
ing ‘Projects Related to CWG self, saying: “We will return ev- Delhi was in serious danger of losing its Games bid to
2010’. This is their language, ery penny we’ve received from Hamilton, the Canadian city that hosted the first version of
not ours. The fact is that most the government by collect- the Commonwealth Games in 1930 (it was called the Brit-
of this infrastructure con- ing money.” Sure, but is any- ish Empire Games then). In a two-horse race, both cities
struction is being put on the one willing to bet on when the submitted detailed plans to the CGF in May 2003. When
fast-track only because of the money will make its way back they were opened, Delhi found itself on the back foot on
Games and the kind of mon- to the government’s treasury? one of the most important questions that determine sport-
ey that is being spent on Del- There are some who say that ing mega-events: legacies and long-term impact on the
hi’s infrastructure would not cost overruns always hap- city. Hamilton had put the local McMaster University at the
have been possible in ordinary pen in big sporting events like centre of its Games concept. It put academic partnerships
times. Power, for instance, is this one. The Beijing Olym- as the second-most important objective of the Games and
being fast-tracked due to the pics were a good example of the university was slated to benefit from the entire new
lofty promise of showcasing a this and London, which is pre- infrastructure that was to be built. The Games Village and
capital city with 24-hour pow- paring for the 2012 Olympic three of the other five new sporting venues that Hamilton
er during the Games. Games, is another. However, proposed were to be built on the 300-acre campus of Mc-
Why does all this matter? if these cities got their fiscal Master University. The idea was to create a permanent leg-
Well, for one thing, most of management so wrong, why is acy of world-class and accessible sporting infrastructure
this money is the taxpayers’. it necessary that we should do for students in this small city of 500,000.
The Vajpayee government so as well? A pertinent exam- In contrast, Delhi’s original bid proposed to build a
had guaranteed the Com- ple here is Melbourne which Games Village and to sell it as luxury apartments after
monwealth Federation that it hosted the 2006 Common- the Games concluded. Compared to Hamilton’s focus on
would pay for any shortfall be- wealth Games. Unlike Delhi, its university, Delhi seemed on shaky ground. Even more
tween revenues and expendi- Melbourne’s total spending seriously, India’s sporting czars said that they would fi-
ture of the organising commit- of $2,913,157,000 was just 0.6 nance almost 40 percent of the then-estimated cost of the
tee. We have already seen the percent above its estimate. Games from the sale of these flats. This looked decided-
huge cost overruns outlined. The big question is, why ly risky. The flats could only be sold after the Games. If
Remember that even these es- were the cost estimates so far
calated costs do not cover the off the mark? Was it because
40 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010
ravi Choudhary people politics policy performance
Games Politicians Play
of mismanagement or because about the previous Games.”
of unavoidable circumstanc- Frankly, then, the organis-
es? Sheila Dikshit has a plau- ing committee never had an
sible point when she argues idea what it was doing. Del-
that the global downturn is hi hosted the Asian Games in
partly responsible. “There are 1982 but there was no institu-
many stakeholders. The es- tional memory of it, or if there
timates given were approxi- was, it wasn’t tapped into. The
mations but, because of the government of India signed a
current economic situation, blank cheque based on shod-
things have changed. Both ce- dy budget estimations made
ment and steel are costlier,” by amateurs who didn’t seem
the chief minister argues. to know what they were do-
But wait till you hear what the ing. And are we supposed to be
director general of the organis- happy that now, six years lat-
ing committee has to say in his er, the organising committee is
defence. Speaking to us in Jan- claiming to get its act together?
uary 2009, he admitted that the Shouldn’t all of this have been
costs have escalated so sharply done earlier? And who will be
they were also supposed to pay for the Games, how would because the original estimates held accountable?
the Games be held in the first place? And what if the flats were based on total ignorance. The problem is that we can’t
failed to yield the expected revenue? The CGF’s technical It was such a chilling admis- get out of it now. “What will
experts rightly saw this as a major financial risk for Delhi. sion that it deserves to be re- the world think,” they all say,
Delhi needed to win the bid. So, when the CGF’s experts produced in full: and so the money keeps flow-
raised these questions, Delhi’s organisers agreed to a ma- “The first budget was made ing. Let it be clear that this is
jor change. The plan to sell the flats to finance part of the two years back [i.e., four years not a party-specific attitude.
Games was “subsequently amended” to ensure that the after the bid was submitted]. It is no accident that the idea
budget would not be reliant on the sale of the accommo- At that time the OC was a fledg- of the Games has always en-
dation. By October 2003, Delhi submitted a revised bud- ling organisation. It was find- joyed political support, cutting
get wherein the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) took ing its feet. Nobody had past across the party divide. The
over the risk and responsibility of the Village and the CGF Games’ experience. Watching 2003 bid was guaranteed by
Evaluation Commission reported that the “sale of residen- Games, seeing Games is one the then BJP-led National Dem-
tial apartments is not [any more] a risk to the Games bud- thing but nobody was inside it. ocratic Alliance government
get”. Basically, government agencies agreed to pay for the The budget was made on very but the Congress party, then
money that the flats’ sale would have provided. basic things. So if you want to in opposition, backed it fully.
One of the most disturbing but little-known stories of present a very basic Games, the So did the lieutenant gover-
these Games is that at the same time, Delhi’s organis- budget was made like that [sic]. nor of Delhi, the Congress-led
ers also promised that its Games Village would be turned Similarly the other arms, Del- state government of Delhi, and
into hostel accommodation for Delhi University after the hi government, all the bud- the MCD, also controlled at the
Games. CGF documents are unambiguous on this count. gets were very rudimentary time by the Congress.
Leading up to the crucial vote of Commonwealth countries budgets. As you really take the The last time so much mon-
in November 2003, when Delhi finally won the Games, it plunge, as you get more and ey was floating around in Del-
gave an undertaking that “post-Games, the Village will more into it, you begin to look hi was during the Asian Games
provide hostel facility for the Delhi University”. This was at the other websites, you be- in 1982, when Indira Gandhi
done, it seems, to make Delhi look as committed to edu- gin to get more documents as to pulled out all stops to refash-
cation as Hamilton did with McMaster University. India’s what was done. Then your esti- ion her and the capital’s image
sports managers championed this idea and the notion mations also keep going up, so in front of the world. The Delhi
of the Village as a university hostel was prominently dis- now a more detailed exercise of 2010 is a very different place
played in Delhi’s revised bid documents. As the CGF not- has been done. We are in the from the Delhi of 1982 but one
ed, ‘The Games Village will provide an excellent hostel process of re-evaluating our thing has not changed: mon-
facility for the Delhi University and will remain available budgets and of course input ey is aplenty and everybody
for residential use during hosting of future international costs have gone high … steel wants to be in on the party. n
events.’ has become more expensive,
This plan was published in cold print but was never cement is a problem. These are Edited extracts from Nalin Meh-
heard of once Delhi won the bid. Delhi’s Games masters normal escalations which hap- ta, Boria Majumdar, ‘Sellotape
had always intended on selling the real estate and the pen. But many things were not Legacy: Delhi and the Common-
much-needed DU hostel plan was given a quiet burial. factored in. Now one has be- wealth Games’, New Delhi: Harp-
Few people knew of the commitment to the Delhi Univer- come wiser because everybody erCollins, 2010. Pages 303. Rs450
sity and there was virtually no public protest when it was is into the Games more, ev- xcerpted with permission from
cancelled... erybody has read more about Mehta and Majumdar’s “Sello-
the Games. Everybody has got tape Legacy”, to be published by
more data and information Harper Collins.
www.GovernanceNow.com 41
