So, India got its first Olympic gold. Or maybe, I should say, Abhinav Bindra got his first Olympic gold. Am not sure what India’s contribution has been in Bindra’s achievement – Bindra’s father had built his son a shooting range at home – and therefore I don’t know whether it should be called a national victory.
Someone compared it to India winning the 1983 cricket World Cup. That would mean no Indian would be winning an Olympic gold in the next 25 years at least.
Let’s be honest. How many of us had heard of Bindra before the morning of August 11, 2008? And today he is a national hero.
He is a hero. He is an Indian. But am still balking at calling it an Indian victory.
It would have been an Indian victory if the country had given him a shooting range, equipment and expertise to win the gold and not his father.