Tuesday, October 19, 2010

India Can Never Honor its Heroes

India since its independence have been marred by controversies in each and every event or thing it did however that very event eventually lead to the rise of national fame and prestige. With the ongoing controversies of Commonwealth games corruption and also of the debacle we had with the IPL I am being forced to say that we will never learn to honor the true heroes behind it and who had dared to do some thing which we could have never imagined. Since the Asian games last held in the year 1951 in India it took us almost fifty years to organize the second major games in India.


I would like to call them some passionate fools who did everything to start from zero and create an extravagant event only to be defamed and marred by charges of corruption. I am not saying they were not involved in corruption but can you assure a person to be honest in dishonest system. Should we not accept the fault of not providing them the right system. Words from rang de basanti still echo “Hindustan mein kuch karna hai to puri baraat kahte hai”. I would like to say that they were the conman who managed everything with one focus of organizing there respective events.


I do not doubt that they were not man of integrity and now you might equate him with Mr Sreedharan the man behind success of DMRC however the difference between DMRC success and there debacle lies in the fact that DMRC was a single body with defined charter and defined power and did not have to work with multiple agencies. Yes it may be said that a technically qualified man was working behind DMRC but then it is the failure of PMO in nominating a wrong person and Mr Suresh Kalamadi should be praised for working against all odds. To me he is a hero in all sense who had worked against time and tide and had successfully organized the games against all odds.


Also the fact that he may be person who is being disrespected for each and every thing or for being attributed for each wrong, how could be responsible for collapse of foot over bridge or for dirty toilets in CWG village. I thought the implementing agencies to the same were the urban development ministry and PWD which is not under his control and as far as I know the facility management of the Games Village was with the ashok group I vaguely remember seeing one such tender.


Why is the success of the opening ceremony not being attributed to him which he must have conceived but yes even I was the one who criticized the closing ceremony for bollydfying the entire process. And yes my criticism to it still remains and however I would also like to acknowledge that I am sorry for not appreciating Mr Kalamadi. But when I digged into the records only to find the other side of the story.


In the end I would like to say that more I thought of finding Mr Kalamadi Guilty more I found that he is being held culprit for one obvious reason that someone has to be blamed .

But we never see the other side of the story it was because of the passion of select few that delhi got a world class infrastructure although because of corrupt acts of PWD and developing agencies it may have some shortfall but it can always be repaired and maintained. India has been acknowledged to be a country which has resources infrastructure and capability to host any such event.


And as it is always “The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on” and I can see few smiling faces in Delhi and Central Government.

And my apologies to Mr. Suresh Kalamadi for thinking of him as a culprit while the truth is that we are a nation of culprits who need someone to blame for every wrong that happens and attribute every success with ourselves.


Disclaimer

I am in no way advocating that corruption is the need of the hour or that any stone should be left unturned to probe such charges. The only thing I am advocating is that we must honor the persons behind the success of some endeavors which we could not have possibly imagined but because these people the same were successful.


by:

Aman Garg

LLB(h)

amanlegal@gmail.com

1 comment:

  1. Yes, Its true we don’t honor our heros. We have forgotten almost all our 'real' heros. We have forgotten our kargil heros, Saurabh Kalia, Amit bhardwaj, Vijyant thapar and many more, We have forgotten batla house encounter heros, and we have forgotten recent 26/11 martyrs Maj Unnikrishnan, Vijay Kalaskar and others (even I am forgetting major names), and of course we have already forgotten our all national heros Tilak, Vivekanada, Lajpat Rai, khudiram bose etc.. I am intentionally including legend names because it is seen there are no reflections of their ideals, lessons in our deeds nowadays, even celebrities, famous and eminent personalities don’t quotes their names in their statements, conversations and in public meetings. We have almost excluded all of them from our present way of life.

    So if we have forgotten all of them then if we are forgetting one more hero here then what is the big question?
    After all, he is just a bureaucrat! holding a most respectable and responsible post which reflects Indian vision of sports. Yes, he alone is not the culprit; sports ministry, state govt., CPWD, NDMC and few more agencies and our respected PM Mr Singh is equally responsible for all these debacles.

    See his honesty when reporters asked about all this – I m responsible only for organizing games and ministry given me all stadiums very late. What can I do? This was not the sincere answer. Today he is also blaming the state govt. for all malfunctions!

    When media talked about hooting (against Kalmadi) in inaugural function of CWG he replied – I didn’t hear any hooting. Why? Because ignorance is easy and things (blame) are hard to accept.

    He said firmly I am not involved in all ‘this’ but if your team member did something wrong and concern deptt are doing their assigned work so irresponsibly you should involve and initiate positively. Did we see any initiation from ‘Organizing committee’?
    You are accountable to country, its taxpayers and to parliament.

    Being boss is not easy; in any case, he has to accept all blame and fame. Nowadays we cant expect no one gives up his position just by taking his or her moral obligations. So how can we expect from Mr  Kalmadi?

    You know how Indian public is feeling like cheated again and again…

    Don’t compare Kalmadi with Shreedharan. Shreedharan is not the crop of these dirty bureaucracy system. He is a value based man, hard core engineer with high corporate values. Remember when first metro derailment happened he resigned from chairman though it was not accepted.

    If he alone is not the villain then he alone is not the hero for CWG, how you can overlook the army role when your foot over bridge was collapsed and only army was there and repaired it with in three days, thousands of young volunteers who were ready to serve their guests (24 hours), hundreds of Artists, Delhi police and of course above all Players who did so well and saved dignity. And also hundreds of beggars who were left out to somewhere else so that city’s beauty should not be disgraced :) 

    Hero must have utmost respect to values, sincere towards their public appearance and a great sense of responsibility who accepts fame with folded hands and defeat with same spirit.

    Mr Kalmadi is not our hero!!

    Comment by:
    Praneet Sushil
    praneet.sushil AT gmail.com

    ReplyDelete

Ground Report India publishes articles as they are given. Ground Report India is not responsible for views of writers, critics and reporters. For any contradiction, please contact to the author.

Please give your Name, Email, Postal Address and Introduction with comment.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.