The apparent success of the G20 summit in New Delhi in September this year no doubt spurred Prime Minister Narendra Modi into envisioning India as host of the 2036 quadrennial summer Olympic Games, which timeline is a bare 13 years away. If India does actually bid for the Games it will be commendable only as a show of the BJP government’s confidence that it can pull off such a gigantic global event. In reality, however, India has not a spitball’s chance in hell to be accorded such privilege.
In the main because the International Olympics Committee (IOC) is ever so picky about where these Games are staged and values the optics of a first class, First World site, perhaps, more than it does the actual competitive physical exertions on the fields of play (as long as they pass off without controversy!). Countries aspiring and eager to host the Games have to meet — and this is an unspoken condition — First World standards not just in the necessary infrastructure — massive modern stadia, large sized swimming pools, a world class velodrome, etc., but for the society to reach that level as well. Even if India is able to afford the price tag — just the sports infrastructure cost China $20 billion 15 years ago, the First World Western public social standards (of cleanliness, of law and order, etc) is a hurdle India cannot cross. It is not as if all that’s required is for the Central and Delhi governments to do what they did for the G20 conference — potemkinise parts of the city the foreign dignitaries would transit for the duration by clearing the underpasses of beggars and destitutes, filling some potholes, giving a new coat of paint to road dividers, placing flower pots at every turn, etc.
Speaking of flower pots — the lack of any basic civic sense or respect for public property in the population, which the IOC puts much store by — remember they prize Western social sensibilities, was evidenced on the day after the summit when whole families — and these did not appear really impoverished, descended on the roads and traffic roundabouts and simply ransacked whatever was not bolted down. The flower pots gracing the roads in Lutyen’s Delhi, for instance, were emptied by these scavengers of the mud and the flowering plants right where they were placed, who then happily decamped with the plastic pots they plan to put to better use. All this activity was, mind you, in full view of the media and no police anywhere in sight! The Times of India next day carried a page one picture of a smiling mother and son carrying away their loot. That photo and the accompanying story would by itself be a disqualification for an appalled IOC, if everything else was on the up and up, which it isn’t.
This might hurt Modi’s amor propre, but the hints of First World prosperity — the metro railways, ‘cyber hubs’ in many cities, notwithstanding India does not remotely meet the eye test of a coming power. Motor past the new airports in the country and one is plunged into the trademark Indian over-populated urban chaos with no urban planning worth the name, decrepitude, filth, and traffic jams everywhere, with lane driving an entirely alien concept to most Indians taking to the road. Whence, two lanes are converted to five with every bit of space occupied by every sort of wheeled vehicle imaginable jostling to get ahead, even as people nonchalantly breathe air so foul IOC board members would baulk at overflying the country let alone landing to take in the scenery.
India is nowhere near a developed state — the absolute prerequisite for any winning Olympics bid. It is still only a slightly improved version of the socialist Third World country it has been since 1947. Little substantive change has occurred because, despite Modi’s election promises of thinning the government and minimizing the government’s role, the sarkari hand is still heavy with everyone who somehow manages to get on the public payroll being guaranteed a life of relative ease and a career doing little except further gumming up the works. As cogs in an over-large brain-frozen bureaucratic state not much more is expected of him. Hardly surprising then, as many have argued, that every caste and sub-caste is agitating for ‘sarkari naukri’ for their youth, and a reservation quota for the purpose. This hankering for government jobs (to wit, Maratha protests) may be reducing even a once vigorous and economically vibrant free enterprise-minded Maharashtra state to a coastal variant of benighted Bihar. “It is all very well to speak of a market-led society”, writes Sanjay Srivastava in the Indian Express of Nov 2, 2023, with Modi’s electoral plank in mind, “but if this happens in a context of an overweening state presence in everyday life, no one is silly enough to actually believe it.”
An overweening government is why India will forever remain under-developed, its people used to government doles wanting more and more freebies until the productive portion of the economy sinks under the weight of the cost of government and the monies it ladles out in the form of unending subsidies and synthetic job creation by padding its rolls. And why the country’s bid for Olympics will continue to be dismissed with barely concealed contempt.
In Asia, Japan had its coming out party as a phoenix rising from the ashes of abject military defeat in World War Two in 1964 with the Olympics and marked the occasion as a technological power by inaugurating the Shinkansen (Series 0, Hikari) ‘bullet train’ speeding at 130 mph — then the fastest in the world . When Seoul had its Olympics in 1988, it marked South Korea’s similarly accelerated ascent from absolute penury and the devastation of war to economic powerhouse and First World state — the first of the ‘little dragons’ to come to the fore. Ten years later, China at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (and with the Winter Olympics last year) spectacularly showcased its all round prowess and new found status as the peer-rival to the United States. The Games also were a salute in kind to the foresight of the ‘Great Helmsman’ — Dengxiaoping who exchanged Maozedong’s ‘Red Book’ for good sense and unleashed the private sector and individual enterprise.
For India’s bid not to be perfunctorily rejected therefore necessitates India’s first making the steep climb to become a genuine developed country in all respects. The rate at which India is actually progressing, however, and realistically speaking, even a bid for the 2060 Olympics — when the population is expected to stabilise around 1.6 billion people — appears a bit optimistic.
Security Wise 
Exactly my thoughts…the look is just just not there it’s sad but true…lots and lots and lots of hard work is needed still atleast 20 years of 7-9%of growth …China looks modern India doesn’t as simple as that…the glass shimmering supertall skyscrapers are really needed…one of the reason – they look good 😊…Also we can’t even fix the dust on the side of road… mean where road meets footpath or the central barrier is always so dusty ..don’t even understand why
One needs to watch the 2008 Olympic Games opening ceremony to realise the herculean task of India winning the bid for 2036. The only factor in India’s favour is the fact that the IOC is even more corrupt than Indian bureaucracy.
Email from Vice Admiral Anil Chopra (Retd), former FOCINC, Eastern Naval Command
Sat, 4 Nov at 10:06 pm
For once, agree with you in entirety!
This country will perpetually be squeezed between massively inefficient and venal government employees , and an equally humongous class of unproductive freeloaders.
Irrespective of the party in power.
Sarkar is the one word definition of our culture!
Cheers
Email from Commodore Anil Jai Singh (Retd)
Sat, 4 Nov at 9:15 pm
I attended an event at the Bharat Mandapam – the showcase of the G20 Summit built four years behind schedule. It reflected the external gloss hiding the sub-standard quality within. Ungrouted tiles, cracked edges, water collection, naked wires, and unbelievably, cracks in the false ceiling. This was one month after the G20 Summit. Hosting the Olympics will be a great recognition of emerging India ( in 2036) but getting them may be a tall order.
Regards,
AJS
Email from Lt Gen Devraj Singh (Retd), former DG, Infantry
Delightful reading and a reality check.
Thank you .
“Hardly surprising then, as many have argued, that every caste and sub-caste is agitating for ‘sarkari naukri’ for their youth, and a reservation quota for the purpose.”
More than six years back, I mentioned the aforesaid in one of my compositions for a Chinese newspaper. Sadly nothing has changed;
http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0122/c90000-9170207.html
Email from, Air Marshal Vinod Kumar Verma (Retd)
Sun, 5 Nov at 2:06 pm
Mirror mirror on the wall……….
So well stated.
Almost unpalatable…..
Keep your pen fluid.
Sir, even agreeing with your premises …I do not subscribe to your explanation…accusing “overweening state”
1. India still have no stable social contract..i.e. our political ecology and political economy still not tuned to be ” Modern state”… Indian state still not able to reach to many territories and demographies within India either as Welfare state or as Law and Order… demand for reservations comes from this…
2. In the meantime India is in its “Glided Age” ..it necessarily requires huge corruption and domineering state to even out political economy..
3 there is noemw backlash against globalisation…it will certainly energise big state again..
Charting path to prosperity can come with Big state ….
But that need wisdom…in that case we are poorly served
I have traveled very extensively across the world during my middle school and first two years of high school(before JEE prep). I have concluded that India is anything but an amalgamation of a myriad of feudal-barbaric tribes held together by religion, common skin complexion, and above all, mutual fear of each other. It’s no surprise that these savages elect the kind of leadership we have starting from the humble panchayat right up to 7 RCR. The quality of Indian cities and urban life, in general, can be improved by leaps and bounds if we get rid of the government municipal bodies and place everything from sewage water treatment, street cleaning, and power supply to garbage disposal in the hands of large private sector companies(RIL, L&T, and Adani). But the “socialist” nature of the country and its politics will not allow that. The visceral hatred, the plebeian population of this country has for anybody who makes it big through legitimate means(or otherwise) is the heart of the problem. “Democracy” a romantic idea of the ancient Greeks simply cannot work in a country that is as massive and frankly, barbaric as ours. “Democracy” was, in fact, never meant to be extended to all sections of society to begin with, if one is to go by its primordial Greek form. Democracy in our country is nothing but “monkey-mob rule”. The contempt I have for the way democracy is practiced in this country cannot be expressed in words. Similarly, the bureaucracy, judiciary, and even the military are still frozen in the British Raj mindset. The institutions the British left behind have ensured that this country is still intact despite having what is, unquestionably the most hostile neighborhood possible. However, they cannot improve the quality of life of the average citizen of this country. Subaltern standards of politics and the grotesquely incompetent of every single government institution in this country are to blame for the contemporary state of affairs.
All this being said, this is still my country and I will still serve to my utmost.
Ayush@ — You have no knowledge of entrepreneurship, political economy, political ecology of india…
India is poorly served not by ” subaltern government” or mob-democracy…
India is poorly served because government apparatus above mid level bureaucracy is corrupted collusively with aristocray-oligarchy… this nexus thwart democratic impulse and corrupt public governance…
Which country in the world is ” better governed” without democracy??? No authoritarian govt can improve public governance..they may create ” zone of affluence” like Pakistani aristocracy..
You may provide counterexample of China… but success of China not only because of authoritarian structures but because their authoritarianism is infused with Communistic principle of redistribution…
Will you endorse an indian version of authoritarianism+communism ….??? OF course Not … indian salaried aristocrats like you like to have oligarchic-Russian type authoritarianism in place of democracy or Communism-infused-authoritarism…
Your prescription will be more dangerous….
Professor, Methinks 2040 or 2044, not 2060. India may not change much, but world will change. Depends more on how Indians perform in Olympics than first world standards.
Professor, forget the Olympics. Whether India hosts it or not does not matter. What matters is India’s military modernization. From what I am hearing, GE is sabotaging the LCA Mark 1A program by delaying delivery of engines. This is a political power play by the US to keep India under its thumb. But frankly, unless India develops the Kaveri engine in its own, it will always be under someone’s thumb. Unless India has some cards on China that it can deploy against the US. Some more games to come!
There is a question mark on Whether India will be able to win any kind of medal at 2024 Olympics. Although India has been winning some medals over past 2-3 olympics.
I am going to say something controversial, the main problem in India regarding sports is that India’s middle class is not interested in contact or physically challenging sports like football or Athletics. It is has nothing to do with facilities or money.
The gap between India and the rest of the world is too high in most olympics sports. Take the case of Basketball. India does not even have a semi-professional Basketball league. Countries like Iran, Phillipines, Jordan, Kazakhstan have professional leagues for Basketball. Countries like kazakhstan, Iran or Phillipines can complain that they cannot compete with Europe/USA in Basketball because of lack of facilitues/money. But not India.
India’s middle class mostly comprises of 2-3 particular castes only and they do have enough money to atleast compete in Basketball and football. But they do not. India’s football team mostly comprises of folks from Northeast. India’s middle class is only interested in Cricket ( mostly Batting) and then at the most Tennis/Badminton.
MY VILLAGE IS IN HARYANA AND VIJENDER SINGH (2008 OLYMPICS) HIMSELF TOLD US THIS FACT.
We need to understand the psychological or historical factors why Indian middle class is not interested in Olympic sports ?