As the Commonwealth Games begins, the media circus making a mockery of it is about to reach a crescendo. It seems almost impossible to listen to critical voices of reason amidst the clamor for the most outrageous headlines. The UK and Australian press seems to be be more interested in the snakes, monkeys and stray dogs than the displaced slum dwellers and underpaid migrant laborers. There are more articles in the Indian media outlets on the sports minister M.S.Gill attacking the Wipro chairman Azim Premji on his candid and earnest open letter in Economic Times rather than critical soul searching on the issues raised by Mr.Premji. Occasionally, I would come across thoughtful opinion pieces, a rare sprinking of common sense on the loss of common wealth – here are a few.
Rs.28,000 cr Games expense sounds like wrong priority (Azim Premji ; The Economic Times)
The Human Cost of the Commonwealth Games (Krishna Pokharel ; Wall Street Journal )
Whose Commonwealth (Alan Saldanha, The Korea Times)
The ‘Incompetance Raj’ strikes again (Salil Tripathi ; Wall Street Journal)
You are expecting far too much from democratic governments ! Or Indians have resinged to faar too little !
Either way .. no one give a rats ass to common sense.