Prince Charles, President Patil inaugurate 2010 Commonwealth Games
New Delhi: President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and England's Prince Charles jointly inaugurated the XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi on Sunday evening at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the national Capital.
The games commenced with President Patil’s words: “Let the games begin”.
Prior to the formal announcement, Prince Charles, the representative of the Queen at
the ceremony, received the Queen’s Baton at the Stadium, the venue of the opening
ceremony. India’s star wrestler Sushil Kumar handed over the Baton to Prince
Charles, who then went on to read out the Queen’s message. Prince Charles and
President Patil then addressed the audience, before making the formal announcement
of the beginning of XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi.
To announce the beginning of the Games, the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, said:
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I have much pleasure in declaring the nineteenth
Commonwealth Games open.” Also present on this occasion were Prime Minister
Dr. Manhmohan Singh with his wife Gursharan Kaur. Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh also gave a brief speech on this occasion. "From all our countrmen, I convey
my warm greetings to each member of this august gathering of Commonwealth
sporting fraternity. I invite all our guests who have come from every corner of the
world to enjoy our hospitality, to enjoy games, to enjoy the incredible sites and
sounds of India ,” said Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. “Millions of people are
waiting eagerly to watch this great sporting spectacle unfold,” Dr. Singh added.
The opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games was marked by a multi-crore
cultural extravaganza, dance, music and fireworks. It was a magnificent opening that
offered a glimpse of India's great heritage and tradition through a light, music and
dance show, which led to the opening of the 11-day sporting extravaganza.
The opening ceremony started with the sounding of conch, that marks an auspicious
beginning in India. Noted playback singer Hari Haran sung the ‘Swagatam’, as a
packed to capacity JN Stadium with a strenght of 60,000 spectators giving a big
applause. A rupees 40-crore aerostat added to the magnificient ambience of the
stadium, as it offered an additional novelty to the Sunday's show.
Soon, athletes from the 71 nations of the Commonwealth marched in with pride at
the stadium. The hosts of the previous edition of the Games in 2006 Australia, led the
march-past followed by other countries in alphabetical order. The current host India
was the last in the march-past. Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra led the
619-member Indian contingent as the flag-bearer during the opening ceremony.
AR Rahman's musical enthralled the audience at the end. President Pratibha Patil,
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with Gursharan Kaur joined everyone in the
stadium in giving a standing ovation to the Indian contingent in the march past. It may
be noted that about 6,700 players of 71 countries are participating in the
Commonwealth Games this time. Congress President Sonia Gandhi, senior Bharatiya
Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani, Home Minister P Chidambaram, External
Affairs Minister SM Krishna and former President APJ Abdul Kalam were among
several other most distinguished who’s who of the country present on this occasion.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Union Sports Minister MS Gill and Organising
Committee Chief Suresh Kalmadi were also present. Prince of Wales, Prince
Charles was with his wife Camilla Parker Bowles. The unprecedented security
arrangement put in place for the Commonwealth Games ceremoney included
100,000 security personnel including 3,000 commandos, and 15 bomb disposal
squads. In addition to that 3,000 close circuit television cameras (CCTVs) were
installed to monitor every activity during the ceremony.
Moreover, the Ministry of Petroleum, ahead of the opening ceremony, announced to
reward any Indian player with Rs.10,00,000 for winning Gold medal, Rs.750,000
for Silver medal, and 500,000 for the Bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games.
