With three days to go for the Olympics opening ceremony, the rush for
tickets is intense - but not for the estimated 1.6 million Indians in
Britain.
The reason: a majority of Indians has been intimidated by the ticket prices in the black market, reportedly being sold at a price up to 6,000 pounds.
Little
do the buyers knew that a ticket could have been obtained from the
official website www.london2012.com investing a meagre 20 pounds, at
least to secure a gallery seat for a league match.
"It is a
diaspora living in its insular world," Ravi Kumar, director of the
London School of Management Education told IANS, adding: "Within this
closed loop, information is circulated through word-of-mouth publicity, creating more myths about tickets than the truth."
Illegal
selling still continues unabated, even if it is a criminal offence
liable to a 20,000 pounds fine under the 2006 Olympics Act.
"Operation
Podium" of the Metropolitan Police has led to the arrest of a large
number of people, including offenders on eBay, it is still not a big
enough effort to bring all the culprits to book.
Though the
police have cracked down on over three dozen websites and arrested well
over 1,000 individuals, many of whom were linked to organised crime, the
underworld operatives' resilience to resurface has defied all methods
of policing.
"Some of the operatives are too evasive and have a deep-rooted nexus," said Moshin Ali Raza, a security contractor.
The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) is currently investigating
corruption involving officials and agents representing more than 50
countries.
"It is too ambitious to expect a big result from this," says businessman Biswajit Maitra.
Sibasis
Nayak, a software engineer living in Goodmayes, told IANS: "I always
have remained less optimistic over tickets after hearing nearly one
million people were refused tickets in the first ballot last year."
Matloob
Hussain, an IT professional working for Spargonet Consulting plc, said:
"Buying a ticket is more to see venue than the event."
"I
believe the bigger attraction is the entry to the ArcelorMittal Orbit
(the observation tower in the Olympic Park, possibly London's answer to
Eiffel Tower)," he added.
Prohibitive ticket prices keep Indian diaspora off Olympics opening
