Bidding for 2024 Olympics would only fuel corruption in India

Editor’s note: This is a reader comment we received on the article India should dare to host the 2024 Olympics. As is Firstpost policy, we have edited for grammar and spelling and removed personal references to the writer of the article.

By Jay

The “Superpower grandeur” still has not waned, eh? It is not wrong to dream big. But please tell me how you would ensure that the political environment will be conducive to doing something massive like this in 10 years? How would you ensure that we will plan properly and execute well as per plans with the “chalta hai” attitude that we have?

If you want to compare situations, we should do it apples to apples. Our comparison would be with Brazil (2014 and 2016 are evolving messes rivaling India’s CWG mess) and Greece (2000 disaster) and countries of that ilk - not China. I am not saying we are no good engineering wise. We have the engineering talent, the skills, even the bureaucrats and managers who can make it all happen. But where is the political climate for letting things happen? Or you think, all of a sudden, when we talk of Olympics, the “political will” will ooze out of the ears of our netas? That they will think of the pride of the country and not how to make a huge “cut” out of it all?

I was not a cynic and in fact I was a big optimist about India for a long time and I still am. Because eventually things will sort themselves out. And people are getting savvier so they will figure out ways to make things work. I am not saying China is a superpower either. They too have ways to go and can easily trip up anytime.

I think it is time to lose the “Superpower vanity” we Indians have and get down to the business of getting our hands dirty doing real work. That is how you will convince the world that we are indeed worthy of that tag. Not by shouting from the rooftops.