India’s new Grand Prix track collides with tradition
The world’s newest Grand Prix racetrack, a state-of-the-art complex just outside New Delhi, showcases the brash, high-octane pride of India as it muscles onto the global stage with world-class airports, an ambitious space program and the planet’s first billion-dollar home.
But just beyond the gleaming track, vestiges of age-old India remain: villages without paved roads, schools without books and legions of people scratching out a meager living. Near the track’s VIP entrance this week, just a few days before Sunday’s debut race, a corpse was being burned in a modest stone crematory.
The looming Formula One event is the most sought-after ticket in town, ranging in price from $55 to sit on the grass (equivalent to a factory worker’s monthly pay) to $22,000 for a top corporate box (several lifetimes’ wages for most Indians).
“Indians no longer want a coffee, they want a cappuccino,” said Kunal Shah, a Formula One blogger and former driver. “It’s a glamour sport, and Indians want to be seen as a part of it.”
Promoters, eager to attract young spenders, have organized concerts by Metallica and Lady Gaga this week. Fawning models, star sightings and $5 million worth of after-hours parties are adding to the allure, along with elephant processions, dancers and culinary offerings from every Indian state.
There will be 35,000 police on duty at the $400-million Buddh International Circuit track — intended, disgruntled locals say, to ensure that they don’t crash the party.
For area farmers, “it’s like these vehicles are driving on my chest, like I’m being run over,” said Madhuresh Kumar, a land rights activist. “I’m really not sure F1 is right for India. It only benefits the rich and those out on the golf courses.”
Critics say the racetrack — on land that until recently was used for rice and wheat fields and several crematories — and the underhanded, even corrupt way that property is appropriated by government here underscore how the Indian miracle often comes on the backs of those least able to afford it.
Like thousands of other residents, Ravinder Nagar, 28, received a letter in 2009 telling him his land had been condemned under an “urgency clause” of India’s Land Acquisition Act. He and others say they were told the land would be used to create factories and highways.
Payouts from the government ranged from $2,000 to $30,000 per bigha (about a fifth of an acre) depending on location and the owner’s connections with local power brokers. Those who questioned the settlements had the money placed in a taxable escrow account while appeals dragged on.
But most people here, largely uneducated and with limited savings, accepted the cash, believing, they said, that “public interest” projects would generate factory jobs to replace the farm work that was all they knew.
“My farm that my forefathers have been on since forever is gone,” Nagar said. “What sort of public interest is a racetrack? I’m so angry I want to burn it down.”
After taking the land, the Uttar Pradesh state government then sold it to developer Jaypee Group at 60 to 80 times the price it forced the farmers to sell at. In exchange for building a highway from New Delhi’s outskirts to Agra, Jaypee has been allowed to build villas, shopping centers, the racetrack, a golf course and other sports facilities alongside the freeway.
Askari Zaidi, Jaypee’s senior vice president, said it paid the market price to the government and that any differences should be ironed out between the government and residents. “Jaypee can’t on its own change the land laws,” he said.
Further infuriating the farmers were the local officials who swooped in when the compensation checks arrived and demanded “processing fees” — to fix a typo, stamp a document or alter a name discrepancy.
“There’s so much corruption,” said Kusum Bhati, 35, principal of a primary school in this dusty village who helped many illiterate farmers with the forms. “Officials made a killing.”
A few farmers used their checks to buy land farther out from New Delhi. But residents say most went on spending sprees, even as fights over the proceeds fueled domestic violence and family feuds.
“Gambling, fancy cars, new houses, lavish weddings they couldn’t afford,” said farmer Jaikaran Nagar, 62. “Most are already broke.”
With land grabs on the rise amid India’s booming economy, Parliament has drafted legislation limiting the state’s ability to condemn property. But the bill is still being heatedly debated, and even if it passed it would come too late for farmers here.
The sprawling Noida area southeast of New Delhi where Atta Gujran is located has seen thousands of farmers from 40 villages file suit over land acquisitions. Despite daily protests, prayer sessions and hunger strikes seeking higher compensation and jobs for their family members, farmers say they expect their voices to be drowned out by the squeal of expensive tires.
Formula One is just the latest sport to explore the Indian market. The NBA has funded courts and leagues and Major League Baseball has conducted a talent search, lured by the thriving economy in a country of 1.2 billion people.
India’s economic growth rate is more than 7% this year, driven by strong domestic demand, an emerging middle class and a large number of young, economically productive people.
Many in India’s burgeoning middle class take great pride in the 3.2-mile track — its 4,000-foot straightaway is the Formula One Grand Prix circuit’s longest — in a country where poor planning, bad infrastructure and lazy bureaucrats have often undercut national ambitions.
The Buddh complex is meant to banish the ghosts of India’s 2010 Commonwealth Games, when deadlines were repeatedly missed, structures collapsed and millions of dollars went missing.
Yet even as India boasts 55 billionaires, up from 49 in 2010, about 450 million of its people still lack access to a toilet. And while the middle class is estimated at anywhere from 30 million to 300 million people, depending on the criteria used, it is still a minority.
Supporters of the 875-acre racing complex say every country has wealth disparities and that the rest of society shouldn’t have to wait until the government eliminates poverty.
Though cricket is still king among India’s sports fans, Formula One has the potential to make inroads. Its statistics and specifications appeal to the country’s many engineers, and its glamour resonates with a population weaned on the showiness of Bollywood.
Racing could really take off, backers say, if Indian teams or drivers, including Narain Karthikeyan, who is competing this weekend, start taking the checkered flag.
Columnist Shobha De sees synergy among race organizers, a growing number of high-end car owners and banks offering large car loans. “Sports cars are the new status symbol,” she said.
But the glitzy monument to Indian ambition is making its debut as the nation wrestles with the moral and social costs of its wealth-fueled binge.
Chatar Singh, 42, a farmer from Dankaur village whose grandfather was cremated on land that’s now the racetrack VIP entrance, said three nearby crematories disappeared in the land appropriations and this one has shrunk by 70%.
Jaypee is replacing the traditional wood-burning pit with electric ovens, which will reduce smoke during gala events. Locals say that’s just one more affront to tradition.
“Villagers are deeply concerned over what’s happened to the cremation grounds but feel helpless,” Singh said. “When we owned the land, we felt like kings. Now we’ve become beggars.”
Tanvi Sharma of The Times’ New Delhi bureau contributed to this report.
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