Officials, royals jostle over Games opening

An indecorous controversy has erupted in India over Prince Charles's role in opening the jinxed Commonwealth Games in New Delhi on Sunday.

The British Royals' office in London played down the hullabaloo over whether Prince Charles or India's President Pratibha Patil would inaugurate the Games saying, diplomatically, that both would play a "prominent role" in the elaborate ceremony.

"There is no row. We cannot be specific about the choreography, but the Prince will read out the Queen's baton message ending by declaring the Games open," a Clarence House spokeswoman said.

Not to be upstaged, Indian officials yesterday riposted by stating that President Patil, the Indian republic's first woman head of state would then simultaneously declare "Let the Games begin" thereby neutralising the adverse debate.

As head of the Commonwealth, the Queen would normally have opened the Games. But for the first time in over four decades she had opted out claiming preoccupation with other engagements.

Instead, she tasked Prince Charles as her representative to open the Games, a responsibility many in India were questioning as 'outsourcing' her role.

"The Queen cannot arbitrarily designate anybody she likes, even someone like Prince Charles to perform the task of opening the Commonwealth Games," Vinod Mehta, editor of the widely circulated Outlook weekly magazine said. It's simply incorrect, he added.

"We are no longer a part of the British empire to give the Queen and her appointees preference over our own president at public functions," Delhi businessman 'Vadeshahji' Bhupinder Singh remonstrated.

The Queen's legacy is long over, he declared, adding that if she considered India an important enough jewel in the Commonwealth the monarch would have ensured her presence in Delhi to open the Games.

Patil and the Queen had jointly launched the Queen's Baton Relay last October in a ceremony outside Buckingham Palace. The baton - which has travelled to Commonwealth countries around the world - will arrive in Delhi in time for the opening ceremony.

The controversy over the inauguration ceremony has added to the negativity surrounding the Games beset by myriad problems like security, unfinished stadiums and unhygienic and shoddy accommodation for athletes.

It has triggered fierce debate over the anachronism that the 71-nation strong Commonwealth is and the unquestioning fealty, however symbolic, to the British monarch - and it seems, even her scions - on occasions like these once-in-four years Games.

"The Commonwealth is a dead letter and its tradition of keeping the Queen as its head in the 21st century is a relic that should be dumped," prominent columnist Seema Mustafa said. Besides, Britain is an economically declining and relatively powerless country today which through its monarchy is seeking to fleetingly hark back to the glorious days of empire long gone, she added.