Indians and India deserve a better set of leaders

As I was going through my Twitter feed, I came across Derek O'Brien tweeting a link to a public debate on Times Now.The issue up for discussion was that of Leadership. Now knowing that Arnab Goswami was chairing the debate, I decided to sit and view the debate in its entirety - I surely wanted to see what the nation wanted to know today! And then the plot also had Avishek Manu Singhvi (Congress), Gaurav Bhatia (SP), Ravi Shankar Prasad (BJP) and Derek O'Brien (TMC) - going by the number of words spoken every minute by each of the names - this should be fun, I thought.

But what I saw and more importantly heard left me quite sad. What became clear was that this wasn't going to be like a debate that we know in the literal sense. Throughout the debate, participants kept shouting at each other, and the host kept shouting at the participants - this surely wasn't the way to hold a national debate. The spokesperson from the top two parties just had one agenda it seems - out shout the other. But each one of the panelist did a wonderful job on walking the plank for their parties respectively, however absurd or impractical the logic may be. And even better job of not listening to what the other had to say. I would not recommend that you see the video in full, the first 10 minutes should be fair test of your patience!

But the deeper question never got answered - what should be the qualities a leader should have? More importantly what should be a leader of the country like India be like? Well since the 4 people on the panel hardly answered that, I looked around to form a hypothetical figure of what that person may look like. I must admit looking at the present bunch of heads in the political horizon, there are very few who would fit the bill. And to that, the ones who do, possibly wont have the numbers to back them up. But should we just settle for less- No!I think this country deserves better. I would hope we get a leader who is accountable, responsible, and takes ownership for everything happening under his/her watch. I don't want my leader to tell me he/she is above board but they cant take responsibility for any of their team. Well I don't think they have ever heard about the leader being as good or bad as his team. I want my leader to lead by example. I want my leader to be able to appreciate good work that someone else might have done from another party. I want my leader to be able to take ownership for shortcomings - learn from them for the future.

I would want that the leader we have, is informed and not afraid to talk and make his points heard. I hope the leader is one who has a track record of project ideation and execution at scale - be it in any field - corporate or otherwise. I don't want only symbolical gestures from my leader - wearing a skull cap or otherwise means very little. I want a leader who isn't afraid to communicate to the masses, who believes in transparency. I want a leader who is well versed in political stagecraft - because you need to drive consensus across party lines on matters of national importance. I also want a leader who also is the undisputed leader for his political party - we have seen an experiment over the past ten years and have a fair understanding of the challenges of that not being the case. I want a leader who isn't afraid to drive electoral reforms and judicial reforms. I want a leader who is committed to provide a fiscal budget that doesn't run into the negative. Somewhere the idea being conveyed to the country has always been that fiscal deficit is something that cant be avoided in a country like ours - I differ. With prudent accounting, plugging of leakages in the system, I am sure we can look at a self sustaining budget. I want a leader who can drive India's interest in global halls. I want an leader who can understand the possibility of using technology & money to improve 3 basic sectors - Agriculture, Education, and Heathcare.

And these are just some of the things that I would have on the wishlist - there can be hundred more. But then it also dawns on me that this indeed is quite a lot to ask from a person. But if you are the leader for a country of 1.2 billion, you need to be special. I hope society through its checks and balances help foster such leaders. I would not even go to the extent of measuring the two people mostly being touted as the next possible PM - both measure far less on that scale. We deserve a better set of leaders.

The word of 2014 - " Women empowerment, system, yada, yada"

The leader who isn't ready yet

So if "Selfie" was the word of 2013, hardly a month into 2014, we may have already found the word for the year, or should i say words for the year. And in no particular order of importance, they are "Women empowerment", "System" and a few more.

 Rahul Gandhi's interview with Arnab Goswami was always going to be in the headlines - for it was the first formal interview that RG gave in his 10 years as a member of parliament (press conferences not withstanding). And then Arnab being Arnab, needs no introduction. There were rumors that RG had been provided the questions in advance, which did a figment of imagination going by how prepared (or unprepared) RG came across as. Another interesting rumor was that RG had been prepped for the interview by two well known PR firms - if this is the quality of their work, the less said the better. Congress has so far miscalculated the play on a few occasions - and this in hindsight wasn't too different. Here was a chance for the heir apparent to come out and stamp his mark in the mind of the countrymen - but, unfortunately what came across was someone who just didnt seem ready to take the lead for his party, forget the country. He came across as someone still caught in the maze - confused may be a closer word. He actually ended up making Arnab look good!  Harsha Bhogle, the famous cricket commentator summed this performance in his tweet.

there are questions on this rahul gandhi interview and there are answers but i am searching for a connection.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) January 27, 2014

Though RG needs to be commended for somethings as well - he atleast sat through the questions,though may have repeated his go to phrase in places where it made absolutely no sense, but he sat through. Also he has made some significant changes in the NSUI constitution, making it more of an elected body than nominated. Also maybe his intention are good (i will believe so, if Narendra Modi can talk about secularism), but he has an uphill climb when it comes to becoming a visionary leader or even a leader that i would expect to bring in change. He often has waited far too long to take a stand - something i would expect from someone who is confidant in his beliefs. He speaks in general terms the moment the question is directed at his partymen on corruption - so even if your claim to stake is providing the RTI - you cannot run away from the CWG, 2G,Coal scam etc. Talking about changing the system, bringing equality is great - but did he forget that in the past 60 odd years, Congress has ruled the country for more than 80% time and if things are where they are - a big portion of that blame must lie on his party itself. And the comparison between the 1984 and 2002 riots - he did seem to have put himself in a tight corner. Just as how everyone believes Narendra Modi could have done a lot more to prevent the barbaric killings in Gujrat, so could Congress have done to stop the racial killings of 1984 after Indra Gandhi's murder.

A leader needs to see the bigger picture, needs to be brave enough to admit mistakes, and strong enough to learn from the mistake and move on. A leader shouldn't need a script writer to tell when what his response should be to matters of national importance. A leader should know when to believe in words and when to look beyond it. Manishankar Aiyar on Vikram Chanda's Big Fight show felt that when he saw RG speak at the AICC meet, being an atheist, he still thought he was seeing a reincarnation of Rajiv Gandhi - flattery of the biggest kind or the stupidest thing you have ever heard? RG unfortunately is surrounded by group of such people - and they will do more harm to him than any favors. RG needs to come out on his own - use the support base that he definitely enjoys within his party partly because of his name, and partly because there is a leadership paralysis in the Congress. I think RG's time will come, but not in 2014. He has to walk the talk - he cant say he is against corruption and then go ahead and form a poll alliance with RJD and Laloo Prasad Yadav and say that the alliance is with the party and not the individual. People will see through such statement. So learn to take it on the chin, you will be better off with the experience.