I believe Congress always got on with Republicans, while BJP got on with Democrats, so it looks like a change of government at next elections. Perhaps this explained the haste with which they signed the nuclear deal? Maybe both knew they would be out of power soon.
So it looks like Obama’s administration will be in overdrive to wipe Congress from power and ensure BJP and its allies will receive the necessary backing / funding and come back at next elections. But then that will bring the politics of division and more communal passions generated and even more religious issues that the media will thrive on.
Unfortunately we have politicians who promote divisive politics. Politicians who thrive in communal disharmony that bring them votes on the rebound from the otherwise unaffected electorate. A socially divisive politics is a reflection of the void within, of emptyness, a shallowess of political goodwill, of social apathy, a lack of nationalist feelings and an absence of patriotism.
We need more Mahatma Gandhis, more Lokmanya Tilaks, more Vivekanada Swamys, more Nehrus, not for their policies but for the strong leadership and political charisma they showed, their brilliant oratory skills and the strong nationalist feelings they generated in the masses during freedom struggle. It is easy to say that this was due to the freedom struggle, and it partly was, but historically we have many times produced great leaders in the past. Ancient Kings like Mauryas, Ashoka, our own Shivaji, are good examples that come to mind.
We need to revisit our idealogies and promote the Indianness amongst us to see what made us the great civilisation that we have been for thousands of years. A civilisation that generated tremendous interest in other regions of the continent and distant kingdoms. And in spite of all the invasions we are still one. We need to promote these ideas that generate and instill pride amongst us. But we need strong leaders who can do that with a genuine patriotic will. That will automatically translate itself into more opportunities for our working population, of nationalist identity, of preservation of national self interest, of skilled professionals who wish to make contribution by investing their skills in our economy, of creation and redistribution of wealth, and pursuing an Indian dream whatever that might be. This will generate a reversal of brain drain. When we do that, we will find ourselves leading the world.
We have had academics and intellectuals in high positions like Manmohan Singh and Abdul Kalam until recently, but I would rather we have strong leadership with strong oratory skills and political charisma (one Omar Abdullah from Kashmir comes to mind) that can drive masses to believe in themselves, rather than intellectual, erudites in high posts who do not necessarily have the qualities of statesmanship, diplomatic skills, or political charisma to win friends with other heads of state particularly in the West and a strong leadership.
Ofcourse we NEED MANY Manmohan Singhs, Chidambarans, Abdul Kalams… etc but Im not sure we need them as leaders. We can make better use of their brilliant intellect and genius in putting together a framework of economic policies, industrial growth, tax structure, planning / development, etc than leading a country. Wasnt it Manmohan Singh as Finance minister who laid the groundwork for economic liberalisation?
I understand most heads of state are very well educated, mostly from Oxford / Cambridge (Rajiv, indira, benazir, AungSunQi, even manmohan singh and Bhutan’s new king, the list is endless) but I do not believe they all have same leadership skills.
As an example…..eventhough, Obama’s brilliant election speech was clearly from an Autocue (and Im sure he may well have excellent speech writers), Obama shows great leadership skills and qualities, Im impressed with his extempore speech without scripts in live debates, the deep conviction with which he speaks, his demeanour, his thundering voice, huge charisma, persuasive powers, etc. One couldnt see that in McCain. But these are qualities that many a good leader has.
Manmohan Singh’s CV is the stuff of dreams and I would even say, there prob isnt another Finance minister whose CV is as impressive, let alone a PM. He is an intellectual beyond compare but we are missing out on his creative genius by putting him at the helm instead of letting him get on with what he does best.
Although leaders are highly intelligent people, I do not believe extremely intelligent people like Manmohan Singh can necessarily make good leaders as sometimes they lack charisma and driving force to drive home their brilliant, ideas and clamp down on fissiparous forces within. Maybe Manmohan is too nice a person to take drastic action against populist leaders like the ones you mentioned. His vacillation, or the uncertainty of UPA’s alliance ensures their continuity. Yes we need many more like him but we need strong leaders even more, the like of which I havent seen in my lifetime.
Have seen archive footage of speeches of some leaders and those that come to mind as natural born leaders, are Nehru, Churchill, Kennedy, etc. Amongst the living I can only think of Clinton and Sarkozy that come close.
I believe we also need to take a closer look at our education system that institutionalises learning by rote, encouraging faithful reproduction of printed material without questioning conventional wisdom or lateral thinking. Perhaps if we did otherwise, then we could churn out more individualism and originality, a questioning mind that does not need to look for a precedent from the West in an unfamiliar situation, but leads them by its own ingenuinity !
And I have hope, I believe our time has come, our search has begun
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