India's Olympian failure

Sadly, there is no real sense of national shame or pain at our poor performance in Olympics, writes Pavan K Varma.

I have been watching the Olympics on telly off and on, but not with the greatest enthusiasm. This is not because I don't like the sports extravaganza. Nor do I have anything against the Greeks or their beautiful capital Athens. In fact, when I was posted in Cyprus I visited Athens every year and had a marvellous holiday touring the bewitching Greek islands.

Frankly, the real reason for my flagging interest is that I find it very difficult to watch so many other nations doing so well and India doing so badly. I am aware, of course, that we have won a silver medal for the first time. This is great news indeed, and we will, I suspect, celebrate it with gusto until the next Olympics. Major RS Rathore who won it will be feted endlessly. The Rajasthan government has already announced a booty for him of Rs 10 lakhs. Other individuals and corporate entities will vie to give him more. When he returned to India he must, I am sure, have been mobbed at the airport by the media and by hordes of people wanting to be seen on television with him. We will be full of pride for what a son of India has done to make his motherland proud.

But I wonder why the emotion of pride swells up in our hearts so easily. Why is it that we are able to so effortlessly accept our near complete marginalisation in the greatest sporting event in the world when much smaller nations leave their mark on it routinely? Every fifth human being on the planet is an Indian. We believe that India is an emerging super power. We are the world's largest democracy, and one of the biggest and fastest growing economies. Our achievements in Information Technology and in many other areas of economic activity are enviable. Why is it then that we perennially accept that our preordained position in the arena of sports is at the bottom of the charts?