Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said last week that people living in the capital can afford to pay more taxes or higher electricity rates. Dikshit also said earlier that since all the facilities being built for the Commonwealth Games will be used by Delhi, its citizens should pay up for creating the same.

The Games are a big deal for India's prestige and just how big you will know from these figures: 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.

But 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. 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. Pray, what is the utility of this extravagance after the event? So the question today is, can India afford a this A R Rehman song? Can't we do without it?