Commonwealth Games and Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

As the Congress-led governments in Delhi pray for a successful Commonwealth Games, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday said he would be unhappy if the Games were a success. Talking to reporters outside parliament, Aiyar said: " I will be unhappy if the games were successful because then they'll start bringing in the Asian Games and the Olympic games and all this. We should be concentrating on making ours a sporting nation. "If we had put 35,000 crores into providing games facility for 90 percent of our children who have no games facilities no access to them. Tomorrow we'd be winning all the medals in the world. But so long as you go on spending thousands of crores on circuses like this and totally ignore the 'aam bachcha' (common child), there is no hope," said Aiyer," he added. With rains hitting the capital, Aiyer said that he was delighted as it would enable agricultural production in the country and it would cause difficulty for the Commonwealth Games Federation in the preparations. "Well I'm delighted that it's raining because it'll enable agricultural production in India to increase. I'm also delighted that it's raining because this is going to cause difficulty for the Commonwealth Games Federation or whatever you call it," he added. India is expecting huge inflow of tourists in New Delhi for the Games, as well as about 10,000 athletes from 71 teams representing 54 Commonwealth member states.

'Will be unhappy if CWG are successful,' says Mani Shankar Aiyer