Sports and pastimes

Who measures public sentiment, do you know?

At the centre of the controversy is the “Building India” tagline in the DLF logo and the objection is to having it on the bowler’s run-up area and on the passage leading to the presentation ceremony as well where players frequently trod on them.

“Please appreciate that the matter in question involves deep public sentiments…with players running over it (the word India) hurts public sentiment and also tantamount to showing disrespect to the name of the country,” the Ministry said in its letter to DLF chairman KP Singh.

“I, therefore, sincerely call upon DLF, the title sponsors, to respond to the strong public sentiments in the matter and take urgent action to stop such misuse…failing which, we will take up the matter with the Trade Mark Commissioner for appropriate action,” the letter signed by joint secretary Injeti Srinivas read.

This is the first I heard that the public had even noticed the logo, let alone got worked up about it.

Elsewhere in the ministry for sports:

Commonwealth Games 2010 is costing the taxpayer a pretty penny, with cost overruns for major projects going up from Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 2,460 crore. Authorities have been facing flak for some time now over delays in completion of projects but it now appears that cost escalation is a major cause for concern as well.

…

Incidentally, JLN Stadium has missed its deadline with work on venues for athletics, lawn bowls and weightlifting still going on. The deadline has been extended for the weightlifting venue from February 15 to May 31. At Indira Gandhi Stadium, the cycling track was expected to be finished by March 31 but will only be ready by May 31 as is the case with the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee swimming pool complex.

Maybe if the ministry mandarins spent less time gossiping with the public…

That said, I seriously now how our ministry mandarins think of every tiny detail, and do the math. Like, so:

“There will be around 8,000 residents at the Village. At a conservative count of one condom per person per day, we need at least 96,000 condoms for the whole 12 days,” said the official, who saw the same practice in Beijing and the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. “The condoms flew off the shelves after the first few days in Beijing. Athletes are used to availing of them after their events.”

Talk about a public distribution system: dear athlete, here’s your one fuck a day, thank you very much. [Seriously, our mandarins are perfectly capable of setting up a booth to distribute said condoms, and asking the athletes to line up, present their credentials, and receive their allotted quota each day.]