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1982 Asiad vs Commonwealth Games - were we less corrupt with a
bit of aconscience then?
Today morning I read in 'india tweets' , an article by Ugich
Konithari. I felt sick mentally,looking at the state of affairs of
our Sports Ministry. Every politician is soaked in
corruption upto their necks. Nothing seems vulgar for them now.
The only aim is to makemoney in ANY way. Is it because the Head of
our Government hasn't got time or inclination to control the
deterioration of our country in all spheres?
I felt a bit of a relief when I read this article in The Times
of India . Let us consoleourselves reading this article. Was
Indira's Governance better than the current one at leastin
conducting the IX Asiad in 1982? Be happy like me, reading this
positive side of someof our politicians!
Sometimes it only takes a single event to tell success from
failure. Or the men from theboys. In 1982, it was the flooding of
an Asian Games venue.
It happened on November 19. The opening ceremony had just ended
and Rajiv Gandhi was sitting in his special organizing committee
(SOC) office at Pragati Maidan in theCapital with aides Arun Nehru
and Arun Singh. As head of the organizing committee,the IXth Asian
Games were Gandhi's first public assignment.
It was around 7.30 in the evening. The three men were watching a
replay of theopening ceremony on colour television, which
incidentally had been introduced in
India specially for the Games.
It had started to pour right after the Games' opening ceremony.
As the men watched TV, a young bureaucrat in Rajiv's technical
committee informed him that the roof of the weightlifting venue
Asiad Centre in the Village was leaking. He said thearena was
flooded.
This was disastrous news. An event was scheduled for the very
next day at theweightlifting venue.
Rajiv and the two Aruns together they were known as the troika
rushed to the Asiad Village.
It was Indira Gandhi's birthday, but Rajiv didn't go home to
help celebrate hismother's birthday.
Jagmohan, then lieutenant-governor of Delhi, was asked to help
supply labour. It waslate but by 10 pm, Jagmohan had got 1,000 men
together. By 10 next morning, the
Asiad Centre had been resurrected. Rajiv and the two Aruns
stayed at the venuethrough the night. A lot was at stake. Asiad was
the only big sporting event India had
http://maradhimanni.blogspot.com/2010/08/1982-commonwealth-games-were-we-less.htmlhttp://maradhimanni.blogspot.com/2010/08/1982-commonwealth-games-were-we-less.htmlhttp://india-tweets.blogspot.com/2010/08/let-million-flowers-bloomunder-flyovers.htmlhttp://india-tweets.blogspot.com/2010/08/let-million-flowers-bloomunder-flyovers.htmlhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/1982-a-love-story/articleshow/6272760.cmshttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/1982-a-love-story/articleshow/6272760.cmshttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Rajiv-Gandhihttp://maradhimanni.blogspot.com/2010/08/1982-commonwealth-games-were-we-less.htmlhttp://maradhimanni.blogspot.com/2010/08/1982-commonwealth-games-were-we-less.htmlhttp://india-tweets.blogspot.com/2010/08/let-million-flowers-bloomunder-flyovers.htmlhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/1982-a-love-story/articleshow/6272760.cmshttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Rajiv-Gandhi
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hosted.
It is a reminder of the level of commitment of the men who
organized Asiad 1982.Compare this with the current situation. The
Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee (OC) is headed by Suresh
Kalmadi and he has been doing the rounds of
television studios, defending some of his allegedly tainted
cronies and their suspect deals. He says the OC cannot take charge
of stadiums till they are complete and it isnot their business to
ensure the work gets done.
Read more:
Asiad '82 had many firsts to its credit. It was the first time
India saw world-classinfrastructure. Apart from stadiums and
sporting arenas, Delhi got its first flyovers. Thedetailing that
went into the construction of stadiums speaks volumes about the
visionof the people associated with the Games.
When it was built, the newly built Indraprastha Stadium (now
renamed after IndiraGandhi) was the largest free-span indoor
stadium in Asia and Europe and the third largest in the world,
after the Astrodome in Houston, Texas and the Superdome in New
Orleans.
The stadium, which hosted gymnastics and badminton events during
Asiad, wascarefully conceived keeping in mind India's unique
history . It was located at roughly the same place that the
Pandavas built their legendarycapital, Indraprastha, 4,000 years
ago.
"The Asiad Stadia", a book brought out by the National Book
Trust immediately after Asiad 1982, says that within the grandeur
of IG stadium one finds an Amravati recreated .The ruins of
Ferozshah Kotla are adjacent to the stadium and there stands an
Ashoka
Pillar, which was brought by Ferozshah from Topra in Ambala. The
book describeshow Sharat Dass, the stadium's architect, drew an
axis starting from the pillar and at a45-degree angle on the Ring
Road and then selected the central point of the stadiumon this
axis. The axis was meant to be the approach road to the stadium,
allowing
spectators to see the Ashoka Pillar against the sky. This is an
excellent example of theminute detailing for the Asiad.
In 1982, then prime minister Indira Gandhi took personal
interest in preparations for the
Games.
