Games – An Occasion to raise Nation’s Common Pride ! Not the Wealth of some!!
It is difficult to consider that Games are just for Sports. Since very early days Games have been occasion to uplift National prestige and power. China hosted 2008 Olympics to show her growing political and military powers. In 1936 Hitler as the Head of Germany hosting Berlin Olympics used the games to exhibit his power and Germany’s prestige.
There is no doubt that the 1936 Berlin Olympics served as a watershed moment in the panoply of modern Olympic games history. The Berlin games were by far the largest games held to date. A record 3.77 million spectators showed up to support a record 4,066 athletes (including a record 328 women) from a record 49 countries. The most up-to-date radio equipment helped to transmit the Berlin games around the globe, and the high powered, state run propaganda machinery that advertised the games incurred a greater expense than previous hosts had spent on running the games alone. The Berlin games, as almost everyone now knows, were also the first to overtly use the Olympic festival for conspicuously and identifiably political purposes, "an obscuring layer of shimmering froth on a noxious wave of destiny," as historian Richard Mandell once called the Berlin ceremonial. And the Berlin organizers certainly proved to be adept, imaginative, and creative in the use of pageantry and symbols, especially in the service of a distinctly Teutonic agenda that furthered the political ambitions of the insurgent Nazi party. We owe the famed torch relay to the modern German not the ancient Greek imagination.
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport eventcelebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament were held in Leningrad, Kiev, and Minsk. The 1980 Games were the first to be staged in Eastern Europe.The United States and 64 other countries boycotted the games because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, though athletes from some boycotting countries participated in the games, under the Olympic Flag. This prompted the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics.
The 1st Asian Games were held from March 4 to March 11, 1951 in Delhi, India. Originally scheduled to be held in 1950, it was postponed until 1951 due to delays in preparations. His Highness Maharaja Yadavindra Singh played an important role in its organisation . Although Japan was barred from the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and was not invited to the founding meeting of the Asian Games Federation, it was allowed to compete in the inaugural Asian Games. Meanwhile, Korea was not able to participate due to the Korean War.
The 9th Asian Games were held from November 19, 1982 to December 4, 1982 in Delhi, India. This was the second time the Games were held in Delhi as it was also host to the inaugural 1951 Asian Games. New Delhi joined Bangkok (four times) as the only cities to host multiple editions of the Asian Games.The Delhi Asian Games was the first Asiad to be held under the aegis of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). The Asian Games Federation, under whose jurisdiction the first eight Asian Games had been held, dissolved to make way for the OCA.A total number of 4,595 athletes, coming from 33 countries, competed in this Asiad. Debut sports were equestrian, golf, handball, rowing, and Women's field hockey.
Commonwealth Games ranks second after Olympics as the largest sorting event worldwide. Commonwealth Games are held every 4 years. History of Commonwealth Games dates back to the 1930s when it was held for the first time at Hamilton in Canada. Earlier it was referred to as British Empire Games. The 2010 Commonwealth Games will be the nineteenth Commonwealth Games, and the ninth to be held under that name. The Games are scheduled to be held in New Delhi, India between 3 October and 14 October 2010. The games will be the largest multi-sport event conducted to date in Delhi and India generally, which has previously hosted the Asian Games in 1951 and 1982. The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi. It will also be the first time the Commonwealth Games will be held in India and the second time the event has been held in Asia (after 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).
But what is doubtful is whether these Games will at all raise nation’s prestige? The problem is Corruption. None of these politicians or others in the organizing Committee are there for love of Sports but to make money. It is indeed sad that those who hold power in this country have closed their eyes to this blasphemy.
Let us wish best for India and her prestige in these games and hope those who attempted to tarnish her image are in the best place they should be – JAIL!
