Children For Sale
For as little as Rs 3,000, impoverished parents sell their children to adoption centres and unscrupulous operators in Andhra Pradesh, who in turn earn up to Rs 3 lakh from foster families. A look at the people involved, the law and where the process went wrong.

Amma Turns Red
J. Jayalalitha's hopes for contesting the elections have been dashed with the rejection of her nomination papers. But this does not deter her from stepping up her campaigning efforts for the AIADMK and assuming an aggressive stance.

Past Tense
The muted reaction of the Government to the massacre of the BSF troops raises many questions. A look at the past skirmishes between the BSF and BDR gives an insight into what led to the heightening of tension at the border.

Coming To Life
With the end of state monopoly, private insurance companies are offering wider risk coverage and better customer relations.

Starting Over
It's been three months since nature shook Gujarat, killing over 30,000 and shattering dreams. Despite government promises and generosity of individuals, rehabilitation is still to touch the lives of many. The story in pictures.

SPORTS: AFRO-ASIAN GAMES

Playing A Pricey Game

After 18 years of debate a costly, controversial sports meet is cleared. Nobody knows why.

By Sharda Ugra

It is the simplest of questions: does Indian sport need a nine-day sports extravaganza which will cost the Government, the taxpayers and corporates close to Rs 80 crore? The Afro-Asian Games scheduled to be held in Delhi from November 3 to 11 have taken 18 years to come to fruition. Only time will decide whether the fruit will be sweet or rotten but at the moment, most bets are on rotten. Given government sanction in 2000, the Afro-Asian Games will be the first-ever inter-continental sporting festival to be held across eight disciplines featuring the top four athletes/teams from Asia and Africa, with one Asian berth set aside for India. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) promises 96 countries, 2,500 athletes and a blaze of goodwill and camaraderie. Former International Olympic Committee vice-president and respected sports administrator Ashwini Kumar cuts through the hoopla saying, "I am all for international competitions but this Afro-Asian Games is part of a tamasha ... the money could have been better spent." There are several factors at work around the staging of this sporting festival, but few work in its favour.

The Politics
The Afro-Asian Games hit the spotlight when Sports Minister Uma Bharati postponed them last week saying she could organise the games "but not its organising committee." Congress MP and IOA President Suresh Kalmadi and BJP MP and IOA Vice-President V.K. Malhotra were said to be jousting for the position of Organising Committee chairman. The Congress-BJP sports dust-up goes back almost two decades to when Malhotra was thrown out of the organising committee of the 1982 Asian Games by then prime minister Indira Gandhi. This time he probably thought things would go differently. The decision to postpone the games was taken with the consent of Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee. However, Vajpayee changed his mind citing the importance of keeping an "international commitment" to Bharati's embarrassment. His change of heart has come about, it is said, due to Kalmadi's close relations with members of the Prime Minister's Office. Malhotra stepped down from the organising committee citing a packed schedule, "These are not the Asian or the Commonwealth Games but will need 30 hour-days." Bharati was appointed head of the organising committee with Kalmadi acting as "working chairman."

The Economics
The organisers will pay for air-fare, five-star hotel stay and allowances for athletes and officials. According to estimates for the games available with INDIA TODAY, the accommodation and boarding will cost Rs 20.3 crore. Other items budgeted for include Rs 20 lakh for hospitality in VIP lounges and Rs 50 lakh slotted under a sinister "miscellaneous". Of the Rs 56 crore budgeted for by the IOA, the Government will pay Rs 20 crore and Rs10 crore is expected from Doordarshan for television rights.

These costs do not include expenses for updating infrastructure, relaying stadium surfaces and buying new equipment which according to Bharati, should touch Rs 30 crore. There are no guarantees, however, that the job will be well done as time is short. A Sports Authority of India official says, "The National Stadium's base is potholed and needs to be re-done before the hockey turf can be laid. But there's no time and they are bound to do a shoddy job." The upgradation of sporting infrastructure is the only benefit the games could bring. Says Kalmadi: "This should be the start of a movement-once we have spent on infrastructure, more international events will come to India." Experience shows otherwise. The Amateur Athletics Federation of India (headed by Kalmadi himself) has held only one international event in the past four years at the Nehru Stadium after the track was relaid in 1996 for the Asian Junior Track and Field meet. The crores that will be spent for these Games could change athletes' lives. Because of the lack of artificial surfaces, hockey is still played on grass, athletes still run on mud and cinder tracks and throwers can't afford the international standard javelin two years after its introduction. An official says, "We fight to raise athletes' daily food allowances from Rs 100 to Rs 118. Here money is just being thrown away." Adds Ashwini Kumar: "This money could have been spent on a sport like hockey in which we have a chance of winning Olympic gold. How many artificial surfaces could you install for this sum?"

The Sport
Sadly but inevitably the core of the Afro-Asian Games-the actual athletic competition-is farthest from everyone's mind. Let alone the proposed cost, the very sporting merit of the event is dubious. The games are neither recognised continental multi-discipline events like the Asian Games nor are they an age-group event where young talent could test itself against the world's best.

The Afro-Asian Games are awkwardly placed in the international sporting calendar. They are in the middle of the international club football season (when the best African and Asian players will be in the lucrative European leagues), will clash with the tennis World Doubles Championships, where India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi hope to be playing, and also overlap the Champions Trophy hockey where Pakistan and South Korea are involved. The Indian hockey team is currently in training and has targeted three major events: the World Cup qualifying competition, the Champions Challenge and the World Cup. No one dismisses the Afro-Asian Games in public, with Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) President K.P.S. Gill telling INDIA TODAY, "Any international exposure is good for the Indian team." However an IHF insider admits, "The Afro-Asian Games are not the focus for the national team-the team is training to peak for more important events." With Pakistan and Olympic silver medallists Korea's best teams sure to be absent from the games, it is equally unlikely that 2002 World Cup hosts Malaysia will put their best squad into what is at best a hiccup in the hockey calendar.

The Indian Football squad would rather play in the South Asian Football Federation Cup in Dhaka (now due to be postponed) than get whipped by far-stronger opposition in front of home crowds. Athletics and swimming are deep into off-season in November. Athletes from these events who turn up will do so either under duress from their federations or lured by fat appearance money cheques. And Kalmadi says, "All the best athletes will come-we've ensured there are no conflicting games."

Thanks to the moguls of the Indian Olympic Association, the Government is being asked to spend close to Rs 80 crore on the Afro-Asian Games. The total budget for other sports expenses this year, (excluding the Rs 20 crore handout for the Afro-Asian Games) is Rs 153 crore. The mathematics tells its own story of lopsided priorities. Kalmadi defends his association's venture saying, "These Games are not as expensive as the Asian Games. The main benefit from them will be renovating stadia. The rest is friendship." With apologies to Casablanca, this could be the beginning of a very expensive friendship.

MetroScape

Focusing On Art
The brief for participants at
"Exhibit 'A' 2001" organised by the
200-member
Photographers'
Guild of India at the Nehru Centre, Mumbai, was clear—no advertisement and portfolio photos. more...

Looking Glass

Delhi Poster:
One Page Classics

Calcutta Pub:
London Pub

Bangalore & Mumbai Rock Concert:
Bryan Adams

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya reflected optimism about winning the state election when he spoke to INDIA TODAY Senior Editor Sumit Mitra at the CPI(M) headquarters in Kolkata, minutes before rushing off for campaigning.
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