One of the problems with Indians is that we are loathe to accept we goof up.
Take the case of our External Affairs Minister S M Krishna (touted as polished, western educated bla bla) who goofed up big at the UN Security Council Meeting yesterday by reading out the Portugese Foreign Ministers speech instead of his own. Anyone who saw the TV footage is in no doubt that he made a blunder and switched over to his speech on being prompted by India's permanent representative in UN. What is galling is that the Ministry is making it out that it is routine for the Foreign Minister to read out from another Country's Ministers speech (even if it is salutations). This is plain silly and deserves all the ridicule that it gets. S M Krishna goofed up. Why can't he just put his hand up, say he blundered, owe up the mistake and get on with laugh. And have a laugh at his stupid mistake. We would have happily laughed with him and told him ticked him off politely to be more careful in the future. That would have been the decent thing for him to do. But no. He has to make a bigger fool of himself by trying to convince us that what he did was correct.
From Foreign Minister to PM/Finance Minister. Both Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee do not have a clue as to what causes inflation, and how to control it. Instead of serving platitudes that steps are being taken to control prices on a daily basis, why dont they just say 'We dont know how to tackle this situation, but we are trying our damnest'. And then 'try' to do something about it.
Ditto in the case of CVC selection. It is known by now that MMS and P Chidambaram goofed up big by pushing P J Thomas's nomination through as CVC, despite a corruption case hanging over him, and despite his known stand on Telecom Scam. And the leader of opposition had agreed to any name other than Thomas. When the s**t hit the fan, MMS and PC could have diffused the situation by saying that, "It appears that we made an error of judgement (which can happen to anyone) and did not have any malafide intentions." The matter would have ended there and then.
A timely acceptance of one's mistake in all humility can diffuse a situation very quickly. And again, it is the decent thing to do.
To err is human, but to justify it is daft.
