M.A.D.- PARADOX. HONEST VS A PERFORMING LEADER

      Last week a politician announced on the TV news channel that he was not a Gandhi but a mafia. His party has national ambitions. These leaders are expected to take the country into a bright future. It was really scary and made me mad. But others appeared to be unconcerned or not giving a damn attitude so, I decided to talk to workers on the street on this issue about our leaders.

     The general reaction was something on the following lines:

         At least he is speaking the truth, others preach like saints but the deeds are of         sinners. Accessible, listens to you and is very helpful.  HYPOCRISY AND RESULT ORIENTED

    The babudom and the local governance is scared of him as he has in the past slapped/ scarred/brandished a gun and defied the authority. If someone does not do his work, that babu had it. GOOD GOVERNANCE THOUGH THE MEAN ARE QUESTIONABLE

         The leaders win elections through votes, which imply there is a mutual expectation between the two. Rightly so, after all that’s the essence of democracy. However the winning candidate generally is with around 30percent votes having ensured no one else can garner more than that. This implies that if a caste, community or any other block of voters or a combination of one or more groups coming together will deliver victory. The subsequent success would depend on his vote bank being by and large satisfied about their needs having been met. CASTE/RELIGION/COMMUNITY/VESTED GROUPS DECIDE THE QUALITY OF LEADERS AND THEIR OUTPUT.

      Our policies are great but delivery is worst. There is no dearth of resources but the output is tardy. Everyone knows it but appears helpless or unwilling to make a difference. The babudom is corrupt, non-accountable, and tardy and blackmails the powers through the unions having direct consequences on the future. Majority in the government political and delivery hierarchy is taking the line of blaming each other and prospering. Honest and whistle blowers being hounded out. DISTRIBUTE THE BLAME BUT DO NOT CHANGE

      The general view was that the leader must get our daily routine jobs done with minimal harassment and quickly rather than telling them the procedures or putting them through the grind of babudom. DELIVERER

      I must quote another incident of a few years back, wherein a politician was caught with huge sum of unaccounted wealth (hid bed) during a CBI raid and he feigned ignorance.(It’s a separate issue that nobody believed the netas version). He was crucified by the media, being from Himachal Pradesh, comparatively an honest state; one thought that this would be the end of his political career.  However, the minster won thumping elections next time in spite of this stigma. His constituency had a very interesting logic – the minster whilst in power had provided telephones everywhere in the state.  Till then mobiles had not come to India and getting a land line was a big pain. The department expected the remote areas/smaller villages to pool in resources and erect the poles. He was seen as a hero and returned with a thumping majority. Were the people sending a message? DELIVERER

This has a serious implication for our nation as the grass root level requirement is much different than the so called ideal copy-book leadership.

We need leadership that can deliver through whatever means, the rest is negotiable. This is in harmony with the basic tenets of democracy and the society. But what future will such leadership gives us is a scary scenario.

Is there a need to get M.A.D. – of course yes, but ask me for the answer, well I do not know as of now?

You have some suggestions, kindly share