Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said this week that people living in the capital can afford to pay more taxes or higher electricity rates. Why should a Delhiite, let's call him a Common Man, keep bankrolling the government – especially after paying more for food stuff and paying more for commute? Dikshit would tell him he should be proud to be hosting the Commonwealth Games – it's supposed to be a big event.

How big can be gauged from these numbers, culled from a report in the Mail Today:

The central government budgeted Rs 8,343 crore for various ministries and departments, of which the Delhi government gets Rs 2,800 crore. The Organising Committee (OC), chaired by Suresh Kalmadi, gets Rs 1,620 crore plus Rs 687 crore for “overlays”. For the opening and closing ceremonies, the bill is Rs 200 crore.  These two gala events can't just have the bursting of crackers and schoolchildren presenting song and dance, you also require creative ideas, which don't come cheap. So, there's a creative director who is taking home Rs 25 lakh a month.

And here's the icing on the cake: AR Rahman, popular film music director, will compose a theme song for the opening ceremony. When it's a Rahman song,  it does not come, well, for a song. He reportedly was asking for Rs 15 crore but given the patriotic aspect to it all – Rahman is very patriotic and he has been honoured with Padma Vibhushan for this, he has agreed to give the Common Man a discount. He will charge only Rs 5.5 crore from us.

Now the idea of organising a big sporting event is fine: Indian athletes go abroad for events hosted by others, now it's our turn. India is the second fastest growing economy, even if up to 70 percent
of us might be poor by one of the many estimates doing the rounds. Hosting such events also makes business sense in that they provide an opportunity to showcase the city (minus beggars) before potential
investors who can bring jobs and so on.

But that does not mean throwing a Rs 200 crore party also makes business sense. Whatever Rahman, post his Academy Award, might be charging Bollywood and Hollywood producers, in this instance his logic seems to be that there's nothing wrong or unpatriotic in doing what everybody else is doing. The Common Man cannot afford a Rs 5.5 crore song.