“There was an honorable reason why many Indians followed the string of mishaps at the London Olympics with glee,†Manu Joseph wrote in The International Herald Tribune. “Such things usually happen only at home,†he wrote.
“The British and the Indians are too proud to let foreigners whip them, but if they are given a whip, they do a good job on themselves,†he wrote. “Still, there is a crucial difference in the ways the two countries have reacted to their national embarrassments.â€
Despite the outrage over its own failings, Britain appeared to possess an understated confidence in itself, which is more profound than the mere swagger of national pride.
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, reacted to bus drivers getting lost with the casual quip, “If they took four hours, then they will have seen far more of the city than they might otherwise have done.†After Mitt Romney landed in London and questioned the city's preparedness for the Olympics, the mayor told a huge crowd, “There's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we are ready. Are we ready? Yes, we are.†The joyous crowd agreed.
When the Delhi Commonwealth Games were falling apart, Indian politicians, the public and the news media interpreted it as a calamitous shame that appeared to point to a failure of the Indian civilization. Mani Shankar Aiyar, a leader of the Indian National Congress, the party that was at the helm during the games, said that he would be happy if the games were a spectacular flop and India irreversibly shamed, because that would ensure that the country would never again be asked to host another expensive sports event.
The Commonwealth Games did expose what was wrong with India: the perpetual quest “to show the world†without altering the ground realities, the incurable corruption. Even so, the reactions of the p ublic and the news media, which included this reporter, were, in hindsight, a bit extreme. The Commonwealth Games did go off well in the end.
Indians tend to magnify the flaws of their nation. The reason why is that nobody is as good at whipping themselves as Indians. Faced with a fiasco, a downturn, a riot or a calamity, Indians are quick to admit that there is something seriously wrong with them.
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